Caught In a Place (Far Away From the Light)
by indehed
Summary: (McDanno, AU - Vampires) Victor Hesse isn't the only bad guy that Five-0 need to deal with. An ex-cop vampire needs to be dealt with first. After that, cases continue with no sign of Hesse until an old friend asks for a favor from Steve. Will Steve go and leave Danny behind on the island?
1. Chapter 1

**Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampires, Alternate Universe - Magic  
**

 **Pairing: Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams**

 **Spoilers/Warnings: possessive!Steve. Spoilers for this story range to 2.10  
**

 **Author's note: The vampire mythology I use is influenced by The Lair, The Vampire Diaries and Moonlight but is pretty much a general mishmash of random vampire lore. Hopefully it's all understandable!**

 **Originally published (on ao3): March 2013**

 **Sequel to 'Seeing a Light (a face in the crowd) and None Like You (You Shine so Bright), When I Stand This Close (It's Almost Blinding) and Glow 'verse interlude 2.02. Best to read these ones in order.**

* * *

It turned out, there was another reason the Governor had been happy to add to Five-0's complement. Denning had already been approached by IA and Captain Fryer with an idea to take down a major player. This guy, this vampire, was a special thorn in the side of HPD because he had been one of them once. After he was turned, he followed his as yet unknown sire into a different line of business. This asshole, Frank Delano, saw it as being more life-affirming for someone immortal - the danger, the thrill… the money.

The only way to follow through and get the evidence they needed was to put someone undercover. The best person would be from Five-0 considering their reputation and the Governor stepped in to order them to help out. Whether Steve liked it or not, they were going to be doing this favor for IA, for HPD. He'd argued it would take say from the work they really did, but the Governor wouldn't hear anything of it. Five-0 was his task force, and if they were needed to take down a major drug player from the inside, then that's what they would do, even if it did take considerably longer than they were used to.

The team met with Fryer to discuss how it could happen. Steve was out straight away. As much as he would have liked to take on the task to save his people from doing it, he was just exonerated of a major crime so there was no way anyone would believe him. Chin was also out because he'd known Delano when he was training. Chin was older than Delano, with Frank being turned in the seventies, and Chin had been in the same precinct as him for a time. Chin was too good a cop, too loyal, for Delano to believe he would go against 5-0.

Fryer had first assumed Danny would be the one for the job but both Steve and Lori vocalized their misgivings before Danny could open his mouth. Fryer wasn't in the loop, so he had no knowledge of Danny's magic. He did know of the relationship with Steve, as everyone did, and could tell there was no way he would allow Danny to be involved. Even if Fryer wanted Danny to do it, he wasn't getting him.

Kono was chosen.

Chin wasn't happy. In fact, he was very vocally unhappy. Kono was close family and his own vampiric possessiveness reared it's head. Danny shot Kono a sympathetic look, but in the end, Kono had been chosen, had agreed, and then they were watching her on television being accused of taking bribes and stealing money from the asset forfeiture locker. It was all an act, but it hit hard to see her being accused of something she didn't do.

After about a month, and Chin taking a few visits to check on Kono while trying to be convincing for her cover, Kono had an in and she met with Frank Delano.

During this time, Five-0 continued to work on cases without her, and Danny began to learn more about magic. To say he wasn't a fan was a bit of an understatement. White had pretty much decided to run the retreat on Mount Tantalus like a High School, and Danny had had enough of that when he was 16. Now he felt he was back in class, being lectured to on an almost nightly basis and being given homework.

Steve always drove Danny up, and always waited either outside or in the kitchen of the large house while Danny was sequestered away with White. Lori joined them and Steve always seemed frustrated that she was sharing a part of Danny's life that he wasn't included in. But the Guild were secretive and of the high-and-mighty opinion that unless you had magic, you couldn't understand what it was like, what it was, or how it felt. They didn't explain themselves to anyone and they weren't going to start with Steve.

Danny tried to explain things to Steve, tried to include him. Despite what was probably against Guild protocols, he would tell Steve what went on behind the closed doors but he could freely admit that he was becoming more vague about it the longer it went on. The problem was, he was tired of doing it. He worked long hours with Five-0, White was taking up more time than he'd originally planned for, Lori was taking him aside during free moments at the office, and at the end of the day, he still had a life away from it all. He had Grace, he had Steve, and tending to both of their needs as a father and a partner were beginning to tax his full schedule. The last thing he wanted was to hurt the two people he loved most in the world. The very last thing he wanted was to spend less time with them - quite the opposite in fact. Both of them needed him, in their own ways, and he had to have the time to be there for them.

He felt so strongly that one night at the retreat, he'd blown a gasket. Frustrated that he wasn't moving along as quickly as White and Lori wanted, he ran out of the room where he'd been trying, and failing miserably, to finally use some actual magic. He stormed into the kitchen area where Steve was waiting with a tablet computer and a blood pack and had actively shoved one of the rather flimsy chairs across to the wall with a growl.

White and Lori had followed him in, their voices raised while trying to get Danny back to what they had been doing, but Steve had simply gone to Danny and bundled him closer, a hand soothing at the back of his neck, the other rubbing gently up and down the middle of his spine. Danny, hands bunched in the sides of Steve's shirt, had taken deep breaths and calmed himself down. There was no use getting angry, and if he was unable to do what they wanted maybe that was a sign that he wasn't this key thing, he didn't have some stupid destiny that was completely vague, and maybe he'd get his life back.

It was ridiculous, anyway. They wanted him to channel his own magic through his body in a way that would make his light visible to everyone, like a firefly. He'd yet to master the ability to see base magic automatically, so he'd been completely hesitant to think he'd be able to make his own hidden magic do anything. He'd yet to understand how magic was supposed to feel, his brain continually telling him that it was nonsense, that it was too big of a change in his life. Yet, his heart told him something had changed since coming to Hawai'i and it wasn't just the heat of the sun and the Aloha spirit.

He pulled tightly into Steve, inhaled the scent of sweat, gun oil, salt water and everything that reminded him of Steve after a long day, and cleared his mind of the stresses on his life. Just for a moment. For just a moment he wanted to stand in Steve's arms and not worry about Hesse, Five-0, magic, vampires and anything else that lurked in the shadows or pierced the light.

"Danny?" He heard Steve's voice, clear as a bell but with a distant echo behind it.

It was ridiculous, right? He was a human being, not an insect, and he wasn't wired electrically so producing light shouldn't be possible and was it just him or was the room getting hotter?

"Danny, what…?" He heard Steve again and responded this time when he realized he no longer felt Steve's arms as tightly around him as they had been. Planning on protesting the loss, he opened his eyes to see the look of wonder on Steve's face. He looked down and saw for himself how he was actually glowing. He lifted his arms to get a good look and saw what seemed like waves of golden strands pumping through his veins like blood. His core and chest radiating light through his shirt. And heat, there was heat. He felt a warmth but it wasn't unpleasant, it was the perfect temperature and comfortable, but the warmth felt almost emotional. The heat wasn't just that of a welcoming hearth on a cold night, but like the warmth you found in people you loved and it was somehow comforting.

He looked up at Steve again, who seemed awed by what he saw, he turned and saw Lori, jaw dropping, and White looking pleased and possibly calculating, like Scrooge counting the coins he had squirreled away. Danny didn't appreciate being looked at like a valuable commodity. He didn't appreciate being looked at like a sideshow freak.

He turned back to Steve. As much as he liked being seen as the only thing in the world that mattered, he couldn't handle it right then. So he did the only logical thing - he freaked and bolted out of the room.

Moments later, he was outside and standing by the car, which he couldn't drive away because Steve had the keys. He looked at his arms again. The light had faded. It had happened slowly as he left the other three. He didn't know how he'd created it, nor how he'd got rid of it, but he was both glad to be back to normal and found himself missing the warmth it brought him. Looking down at himself, he could still see something faint around his chest, his shirt muting the warmth, but maybe it was still there.

"That was amazing," Steve said from behind, voice quiet, still seemingly filled with wonder.

"Is this what you see?" Danny asked, before turning back to face Steve and gesturing at his chest. "When you look at me you talk of a light, of a glow? Is that it?"

"I don't know what you see in yourself Danny, but what I see is… beautiful." Steve took the remaining steps between them so he could run his hands lovingly down Danny's arms. "You always give off this electricity that draws me to you. It's been like that since we met, but tonight? That was like you cranked up the wattage." He leaned down and kissed Danny. It started gentle but quickly became more desperate on Steve's end, like he was trying to take some of that light into himself.

Danny was able to pull back enough to breathe and speak. "The light attracts you?" he half-joked.

"Like a moth to a flame." Steve smiled as he ran a free hand over Danny's heart, his fingers picking out each of his ribs despite the shirt he wore. "But seriously, it's always there. It's not about being turned on by it, I just… as attractive as it is, I know I'd love you with it or without it. It's a part of you and it's beautiful, alright?" He leaned down further and placed a gentle kiss on Danny's shirt covered heart, where Danny registered that faint glow. It was odd to see something there and yet not there at the same time, but now he thought he was seeing what Steve had from the beginning. Whatever had just happened, he seemed to have finally connected with the magic inside of him. That scared him, despite the comfort it provided.

"So let me get this straight," Joe's voice surprised them both out of the tender moment, both of them turning to the side where they could see him in the low light of the evening. Danny saw the light in Joe too and was taken aback for a second. "You're a vampire, but you've been able to see Danny's base magic? First, that's not supposed to be possible. Secondly, why in the hell didn't you say anything?" He may have started quite calmly, but evidently he wasn't very happy with them, going by how he raised his voice at his last question.

"We didn't think it was important, sir," Steve answered, a hand on Danny's arm tightening.

"Vampires can't practice magic. They're the only supernatural being we know of that can't see it. It's supposed to be like being color blind, and yet you're standing there telling me that the fact that you can defy science is unimportant?"

Joe simply watched for a moment as Steve kept Danny close, at the way Steve was poised for whatever might happen and was making sure Danny was protected. Then he just said 'huh' as he came to some sort of conclusion. "There's more going on here than I realized. We seem to have been more wrong about this spell than even we knew."

"What does that mean?" Steve asked.

"I know you're the key, Danny. The way you just lit up proves, I should think once and for all, that you have strong magic and can control what's inside. But the key was always just a half of the spell." He stepped closer. "I should have seen it sooner. The fact that a vampire placed so much value on someone magic, considering the history of the two factions. Romeo and Romeo ideals aside, I should have seen it sooner."

"Can you skip to the punchline, please?" Danny asked, frustrated again.

"The protector." As Joe said it he looked between them both as if that was a good enough answer, but Danny just looked up at Steve confusedly and then back at Joe and shook his head lightly.

"The spell was to have one person be the key, but the other component was something akin to a protector. 'One of our own' who would, well, be there when needed. Protector, guardian, bodyguard, caretaker… the translation was always vague, the Witch was never clear on that point. All we really know is that they're supposed to stay together."

"So what you're saying," Danny began slowly, looking back at Steve, pointing between the two of them, "is that when I moved to Hawai'i, this whole thing, what? Activated? And Steve and I meeting…?"

"Destiny," Joe finished for him.

"Ah, hah," Danny smiled. He laughed, in fact. "Now I know I'm have a nervous breakdown because for some cosmic destiny to have been at play, it handed me heartache, divorce, relocation to somewhere I actively hate. And Steve? He got the murder of his relatives. Destiny is a real piece of work."

"Everyone experiences loss, everyone goes through some kind of pain in their lives," White said. "But at the other end of that you met each other. And from what I've seen, you're pretty happy."

"See, that's where you're wrong. I'm not happy. I have a daughter I love but barely get to see, I have a job where I get shot at on a regular basis, I have a car I never get to drive, I have a clingy vampire who barely lets me out of his sight, and lately, I've been studying magic to an extent that I'm continually exhausted from trying to juggle my family, my job and whatever the hell this is. I'm surprised I even have time to sleep, or eat, or go to the bathroom, OR BREATHE!" Danny finished his rant on a yell directed not just at Joe White but at the cosmos.

He rubbed a hand over his face as silence descended on them, both Steve and White unsure what to say to him. As he dropped his hands back to his side he felt a small wave of dizziness. It wasn't distinct and it was over as quickly as it started but Steve already had a steadying hand out for him.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine, just tired," Danny grouchily replied.

"Magic is like that, it takes up a lot of energy, you need rest so we'll call it a night for now."

Danny leaned into Steve more, his tired brain just letting Steve take over and he missed what Steve and Joe were saying but could tell the difference in their voices. He didn't like the thought that he was being talked about, just as much as he was beginning to feel like decisions were being taken out of his hands. He pushed back a little against Steve's chest, "Okay, I'm done."

He held his hands up and paced away from them.

"It's okay, Danny. Director White said to take a couple days off so long as you kept up the basic exercises." Steve followed after him.

"No, Steve, I mean I'm done. It's over. I don't like doing this so I've made a decision regarding my own life. No more magic."

"I'm afraid that's not possible, son." Joe intervened.

Danny rounded on him. "Like hell it isn't! You don't run my life, the Guild doesn't run my life, it's mine, okay? It's my life, and I want it back."

Steve grabbed Danny by the arms, forcing him to face him and looked directly into his eyes, "Danny, it's okay, calm down, you're tired, you just need rest, let me in…"

Steve trailed off, his voice soothing to Danny's ears and he felt his breathing fall in line with Steve's. He was right, he was tired, so very tired.

"That's it, just calm, breathe with me…"

Steve was right, he needed rest and Steve was there to make sure… no, no no!

He hadn't realized he'd pitched forward to Steve's shoulder but he reared back with anger. "No, Steve, don't you dare use that Influence shit on me either. I am not a perp you need answers from. I won't be controlled by anyone and that applies to you, too. Now hand over the car keys because I am going to drive my own car home."

Steve was about to argue but he handed the keys over and let Danny move away from them and over to the car where he then braced himself against the door, head bowed, feeling like slapping his own face to wake himself up for the drive.

A moment later, the keys were plucked from his hands. "You can drive tomorrow if you want, but tonight, you're more likely to fall asleep at the wheel. Just a suggestion." Steve's voice was calm and somewhat contrite. He put a hand on Danny's hip and guided him around to the other side of the car. "Come on, let's get home."

* * *

The next morning, Danny woke with very little memory of the car ride home. Nor of getting into the house or up to bed. He turned to see Steve was already awake.

"What time is it?" His tongue felt like it was sticking to the top of his mouth.

"About seven."

"You don't look like you've been swimming."

"I decided not to. Thought I'd enjoy a little more time in bed with you."

Danny leaned up on his elbows. "I thought you'd decided that it was fine to go out so long as you did one of those perimeter checks on your way."

"I did. I do, I just wanted to stay here. Be with you, take a day off and relax…"

"We have work," Danny frowned.

"Boss says we can take a day."

"You're the boss."

"And I'm very understanding and plan to turn a blind eye to us not showing up at the office."

"Steve-"

"Hear me out," Steve began. "Last night you said you felt like everyone was controlling your life, I don't want you feeling like that, so today it's up to you. A day off to do whatever you want." Steve's hand reached out and played in Danny's chest hair.

Danny sat up, Steve's hand falling to his side. "Okay, thanks, Ferris, but I want to go to work." He smiled at Steve then tossed the sheets back and moved to get out of the bed, but Steve's hands reached out and grabbed him back down against him. "We have responsibilities, Steven. I'm all for having fun and relaxing, but we do that after what we get paid to do."

"How about we compromise?" Steve suggested.

"What did you have in mind?" Danny turned his head against Steve's.

"We can go in late. An extra hour isn't going to make a huge difference." Steve mouthed over Danny's shoulder, up and over his neck and cheek.

"And I repeat, what did you have in mind?"

Steve grinned against Danny's lips, letting his kisses answer for him.

"Wait a minute," Danny pulled back and narrowed his eyes at Steve while a memory from the previous night surfaced. "Did you CARRY me into the house last night?"

* * *

They were locked into an investigation before they could enjoy their late start, and Danny's problems with the Guild immediately took a back seat. The murder of a well-liked sports coach that spiraled out to money laundering took all their attention.

Somehow, ducking for cover while Carl Joiner was killed in front of them turned out to be a good thing as far as Steve was concerned. Sure, Danny's tiredness slowed him down and Steve had to call his name twice to get him to cover behind the Camaro, but it jolted Danny to his regular self. Though the smaller man had been quieter while they stood on the roof top 600 feet away, trying to put together pieces of a mystery, the car ride back had elicited a rant from Danny, about proving that yes, he did get shot at on a regular basis and yes, it was all Steve's fault.

After Danny had worked out the money laundering angle, they got the call that Kono had been involved in a shoot out with Chin and Lori at the hotel Joiner's wife was hiding out at. Although they knew she was undercover, they'd had no intel to suggest she was going to be involved in this case.

They didn't have time to work out the story. They had to play this out properly and it wasn't long before they had her in their interrogation room, sitting in the one seat that none of them should ever be in. Chin hit the roof when they finally got some more detail out of her and Fryer over what exactly she'd been up to for the past weeks. They knew going in that the undercover work would be dangerous but they didn't expect her to be driving around town with a dead body next to her, while also an accessory to murder.

Steve happily joined in with Chin, both of them determined to rip Fryer a new one while Kono steadfastly stood up to them, wanting to get the job done. But as far as Steve was concerned, what she was doing was wrong. She was only a year out of the academy, she was too green for this kind of work. He'd tried to say that back when she was chosen for the job; Fryer determined to use Five-0, thinking it was the best bait for Delano, and yet it could only have ever been Kono.

Because Steve and Chin wouldn't work. And Steve couldn't let Danny do it. He couldn't.

The guilt weighed on Steve.

He'd sent in a young cop, inexperienced at deep undercover work, when Delano would have believed Danny if they'd wanted him to. Sure, Steve had said Danny couldn't, because of the knowledge of their relationship, and how Delano wouldn't believe that Danny would go to that dark a place when he had Steve and Grace to support him. But Danny had it in him. He could have walked away from Steve this past month, he could have suffered not being able to tell Grace and Rachel the truth on their return from England. He could have done all that and he would have; to have spared Kono.

But Steve couldn't do it. He couldn't let Danny go to that place, not to the darkness, not when he knew what light was inside him. He felt pained just to let Danny go anywhere on his own, let alone on something so dangerous. And to top it off, Delano was a vampire. As far as Steve was concerned any vampire going near Danny had him to answer to, innocent or not. He'd taken long enough to get used to Chin's smell around Danny, even if he was Ohana. To think that anyone would risk Danny in an undercover op against a vampire was inconceivable to him. He wouldn't entertain that thought for a moment.

Which meant Kono.

It didn't matter to Steve that Lori would never have let Danny do it either. The Guild wouldn't have let him because he was important to them: more important than a three year HPD case to catch a ring of dirty ex-cops. who were also mostly vamps. All that mattered was that they got Kono out of this now, and he'd be giving her as much time to surf as she wanted, hell he'd buy her a new board.

All of this meant there was no choice for Fryer: Five-0 were going in to back her up.

Gearing up, he watched as his team donned their vests and decked themselves out with all the weapons they'd need. Kono was down, the assignment was taking its toll on her but she was professional and she knew her mark. Despite Steve's desires, she would have to go in on her own, and do her best to get a signal to him. She'd said he was the best back up she could hope for and that eased his mind, but only a little, as he worried that he had to live up to that now.

He turned his head, seeing Danny in his gear, and he was so very tempted to tell him to take it off and stay behind, but he couldn't do that. He knew he was overprotective of Danny, he'd been aware of it for a while. Sometimes Danny had to be the one to rein him in when he couldn't do it himself. Now, after White's revelation, he felt like he had the reason for it.

It wasn't just because he was a vampire with heightened emotions and heightened territorial behavior, but also because he'd somehow been given the role by magic; or by the witch who created the spell. No matter. Since he'd never felt like this for anyone before, he was more willing to believe it was meant to be than Danny was. He'd been alive a long time, and though jaded, he was willing to give the idea of it being fate a chance, because if magic existed, then why couldn't it have more control over their lives than anyone knew?

He saw Lori looking at Danny. She too seemed concerned that he was going on this mission. They'd been in plenty of scraps since she'd joined the team, and they'd all been in danger of getting hurt because of the nature of the job, but Delano was bad news on a bigger scale. And being a vampire, he worried Steve's possessive streak.

Steve tilted his head back, looked at the ceiling and took a breath. He would not coddle Danny right now, it would just piss him off, and he needed everyone on their A game for this.

He felt Danny's pat to his kevlar covered chest, "Come on, time to move out."

* * *

None of them were happy while they waited in the van. Chin's idea to use Kono's cell had wielded results and they knew where they were headed - to a bank branch to get the money that Delano had stashed with Joiner. They moved in carefully, Chin getting closest but holding back for fear of Kono's safety. Steve took charge, keeping tabs on the muscle and Danny took the higher ground across from the bank. He did it without argument for once, but he knew what was going on - Steve was protecting him, sure, but Chin wanted to be as close as possible to Kono. That was understandable. Steve had to lead it because that was what he did. Tactically it was the right move, and Danny didn't have a problem with that.

Lori was nearby, also on higher ground, on a foot bridge nearby. SWAT was ready, the streets were cleared. They had very little idea what was going on inside.

"Guy on the street is getting curious, he's taking a walk guys, he's taking a walk." Steve barked into his comm.

"We're sending patrols up the street. There's no way to call them back before he sees them," Danny offered.

"We've got about 20 yards before he's on them," Lori added.

"He senses heat, we got a bank full of hostages." Danny didn't like where this was going.

"Hold your positions, do not engage." With that, Steve was off at a run, his aim to intercept the guy before he could warn anyone. Danny caught him in the scope of his weapon and watched the whole thing go down. Steve vented some of his pent up aggression with an elbow to the guy's face.

HPD moved in. SWAT, Steve and Chin took the lead, weapons raised. They'd heard gunfire from inside and moved in, wary when Delano came out with Trisha Joiner as a hostage. Danny came flying in from the side when Steve was shot at, the police cruiser in front of him taking the brunt of the weapons fire, but seeing Steve in danger brought him out from his cover. The situation was over quickly, somehow. Fryer got in the shot that took Delano down, but being a vampire, it wasn't going to be fatal. As Fryer stood over Delano, injured and bleeding on the ground, he shot him again, but he didn't aim for the head, he aimed for the heart, the war of whether to kill him or see him in court playing out for all to see, but he settled on making sure Delano went to prison for the rest of his very long life.

As the dust settled around them, Danny did his best to calm Chin's nerves as they waited for Kono to be cleared from the building. He'd had plenty of experience in talking Steve out of doing stupid things. He applied all his ability now into making sure Chin didn't go off the deep end with worry. As Chin looked up and saw Kono, arm injured but walking steadily out of the bank, he patted Danny in thanks and rushed over to hug her.

Steve came up beside Danny, an arm going haphazardly by Danny's waist where he was leaning on the car and smiled at him. "Nice technique," he nodded over to Chin. "Feels like I've seen it before."

"Up close and personal, babe," Danny answered. "At the end of the day, you vamps are all alike."

"Being protective isn't a bad thing, Danno."

"No, no it is not." Danny lightly patted Steve's chest, letting Steve take the win, even though he could argue back about appropriate levels of protectiveness. "We know you mean well."

Steve's eyes caught someone else and he pulled away from Danny to walk away. Danny watched as Steve went over to Fryer by another car, and he listened in, in case he needed to intervene.

"Hey, Fryer."

"Yeah," Fryer leaned back from the cruiser to look at Steve, who was winding himself up. The punch wasn't unexpected. Steve was really rather restrained in the circumstances, surprising Danny. He could only hope that his presence was, on occasion at least, rubbing off on Steve.

"Nobody messes with my team. No one goes behind my back to the Governor. Alright?"

The threat was obvious. Fryer licked the blood from his split lip and glanced over at Danny, before his eyes hardened on Steve. "Duly noted, Commander."

Steve looked around himself, noting the other officers watching him, then backed off with a curt nod. He walked over to where the team were milling around and moved between them. He beckoned for Danny to come closer, which he did.

"Let's go home," Steve said.

Danny put his hand on Lori's back, motioning for her to go ahead. Steve mirrored the movement on Danny's own back, but strengthened the hold with each step, keeping Danny close to him. The grip on the back of Danny's vest was comforting in its own way.

"Just out of curiosity," Danny started, as they walked away back to their own cars, "do we have any idea who Delano was working for yet? I know he's a big catch, but there's bigger out there according to Fryer."

"I may have an idea," Kono said. They all looked over to her. "I just don't think you'll like it."

Danny saw Steve's face harden, his lips purse together and Chin rolled his eyes as he turned his head to the side wearily. Danny just took a deep, resigned breath. " Hesse?"

"I think so," Kono said with a slight uncertainty. "I don't know for sure, but I did overhear a conversation before when I was getting in. It was about Five-0. Fryer was right about my involvement with the team being a draw. I don't think Delano really wanted me there, I think he was told to."

"That would make a twisted kind of sense," Chin said. "Hesse would think of it as adding insult to injury if the ex Five-0 member began working for him."

They stood by their car doors, digesting the information. Steve moved closer behind Danny, his hand moving from his back to his shoulder, before sneaking over and down onto Danny's chest, while he leaned his head against the side of Danny's head, breathing in slowly.

"It doesn't mean Hesse is back in town," Danny said, reasoning. "He could easily be pulling the strings from afar."

"Victor Hesse has ties across the world," Lori stated the obvious, but it was worth reminding everyone. "There have been rumors at the Guild for years that he's not even the top of the food chain either."

Steve turned puzzled eyes to Lori. "I've been chasing him for 200 years, I've never seen him report to anyone else."

"I said it was rumor. Certain sections of the Guild have been involved in conspiracies for so long that they see them everywhere, but they always point to an encounter Hesse had with a family in 1922, in Russia, as a reason for it."

"He fed on them, they had magic, I already know about that one," Steve said, not seeing the connection, except that Hesse had dared to feed on practitioners and the Guild would never forgive him for it. They wanted him dead.

"Yes, but one of them was a witch. He was hunting a witch, we just don't know which one because he killed all his witnesses. To this day we don't know how a vampire alone could subdue a witch. It shouldn't happen."

"So you suspect he had help?" Danny asked. To be fair to the Guild, it was logical.

"That's the theory."

"So why think he's working for someone?"

"Because a vampire can't kill a witch," As Lori spoke, Danny flicked his gaze to Steve at the insult, seeing the grim look on his face. He put his hand onto Steve's where it rested on his chest. Lori continued, "not that a witch would have much luck killing a vampire either unless they could match their physical strength. It's like they cancel each other out in many ways. It didn't make any sense that Hesse could go up alone against a whole family of practitioners, one that was a witch, and walk away from it leaving them all dead."

Steve stayed silent as he held onto Danny, grudgingly admitting with a nod that Lori had a point. He finally pulled back enough to open the passenger door for Danny to get in. "It makes no difference. Whoever the bigger hitter is, if he does exist, he's not my problem."

"Please don't say things like that," Danny asked of him, hands held together in front of himself.

"It's true," Steve shrugged, "Hesse turned me, orchestrated the murders of my friends and family, wants to get to you to hurt me even more. I'm sorry but until anyone else pitches in to help Hesse, I'm going to assume it's all his doing."

"Why are you still talking? Shut up, Steven. You're laying down jinxes over this whole thing and now I'm going to be in no way shocked when some new monster comes and attacks us in the night and it's going to be all your fault."

"You don't believe in jinxes, Danny."

"Why the hell not?" Danny spread his arms out, taking in the rest of the team, Chin and Kono exchanging the wry smiles they always do when Danny revs up for a good rant at Steve. "People have sworn by the jinx for centuries. You better touch some wood, is all I'm saying."

Steve smirked, Danny knew it was because of the 'wood' comment but Steve let that one go to bring up another issue. "You don't believe in destiny, or fate. So why should jinxes be any different."

"Because," he faltered for a second, but came up with an answer before Steve could say anything else. "Because a jinx is a short term thing, like coincidence. Destiny? You're asking me to believe that nothing I've done in my entire life was really my own choice? That magic has been involved every step of the way without my knowing, or my consent? I have free will, buddy, I make my own choices."

"Yes you do," Steve agreed, crossing his arms, his body crowding Danny into the open door of the car. "But destiny can still exist. There are many ways to get to the same endgame."

He pushed Danny down and in, not letting him retaliate in front of everyone. The argument they were about to have might get personal, so Danny did agree that taking it out of the public eye was best. He continued to scowl though as he pulled his seat belt on and watched the team scatter to their own cars. Steve folded himself into the drivers seat and started the ignition.

"Are you saying you believe what they're feeding us?" Danny asked, curiosity winning out over frustrated rant.

"I'm saying I'm keeping my mind open, is all." Steve replied.

"This is because of the protector-bodyguard thing isn't it." Danny squinted as he turned in his seat to see Steve as they began the drive back to HQ. "You like it. You like having a shiny new excuse to keep close to me."

"It does explain things rather well."

"What explains things is the fact that you are crazy. Two hundred years will do that to a person and I'm sure you've got your reasons as to how you came to being so nutty, but that's always been reason enough for me before."

Steve smiled, "Because you love me."

"What?"

"You reason away my so-called crazy because you love me. And just so you know, I love you, too."

Danny cleared his throat, turned back to face the road and rested an elbow by the window.


	2. Chapter 2

Admittedly, Danny had been ignoring Joe White. He'd been doing his best to ignore Lori as well, because he'd meant what he said about not doing any magic. Truthfully, he did miss connecting with what was inside him, but he wasn't going to admit it because he could be a stubborn ass. Besides, he figured his life would be simpler without it so he wanted to give it a chance.

Unfortunately, he was having a great deal of difficulty ignoring things. White kept calling him, Lori kept trying to corner him at work, and though Steve didn't talk to him about it, he watched in a way that spoke to Danny that he knew exactly what Danny was trying to do and trying to hide behind.

Steve had taken to his new role like a seal to water. With each passing day he seemed more at ease with being there for Danny's own good. He didn't just see himself as Danny's protector, but as the other side of a coin, and that their pairing was so good, and that they complemented each other so well, that he was going to embrace it as far as it took them.

So it came as no shock when they all ganged up on him one day.

Danny had been none the wiser to their tricks as Steve drove them to Magic Island after picking up some lunch.

As they approached some benches, Danny made out the shape of Joe White, but he didn't know the woman he was with. He hung back a moment, inwardly cursing Steve for bringing him down here.

Joe pointed at the boxes in Steve's hands, "Loco Moco from Rainbow?"

"Yes, sir," Steve smiled.

"Hope you brought enough for everyone," the mystery woman said to him as Danny fell into step a few strides behind Steve. He then came to a stop just on the edge of the group gathering at the table.

Joe watched him carefully. "Special Agent Kensi Blye from NCIS's Los Angeles Office, this is Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams."

"Pleased to meet you both."

"NCIS, huh?" Steve smiled, "You can tell Sam I haven't forgotten about that steak dinner I owe him, but he has to come out here to collect it, okay?"

"I'd start saving up, the man can put away the protein."

"Here, you can take this one," Steve put a box in front of Kensi as she sat again.

"This is lovely," Danny said, looking between all three of them. "Old friends, and all that, I'm just curious as to why I wasn't informed we were being joined for lunch."

"When you look at Kensi, what do you see?" Joe asked of Danny.

Danny took a breath, then looked at her. The brightness shining from her was hard to miss. Sometimes he struggled to see it in others, but Kensi didn't have that problem. "I see…" Danny gestured a circle over his chest. "Yeah, I see the whole magic thing, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Kensi is a witch. Or she will be. She's training right now." Joe said, and that explained why she was so obvious to Danny.

"I thought you people worked on a school system like everyone else. Not to be disparaging about your age," he motioned towards Kensi, "but you're a little old for high school. You working on the Guild version of a doctorate or something?"

"Something like that" Kensi grinned. "A witch's training can take a lot longer. Training has to be done with the help of a fellow witch, someone older, wiser. I've still got a ways to go before I'm ready."

"Kensi is training with one of our best at NCIS," Joe said.

Steve sat next to Kensi, he put his hand out, indicating for Danny to be polite and sit next to Joe. He did so, but with an air of reluctance.

"So why are you here?"

"Because, as you know, witches are rare. You and Kensi have a lot in common," Joe explained.

"I get it, so you brought her here so we could commiserate together. That's nice."

Kensi smiled at him. "I guess I've been doing this longer than you have, and I don't think Joe knows many witches nearby, so he asked me to come over and help."

"I thought this whole Shelburne thing was Top Secret or something?" Danny asked.

"All the witches know. We're the 'top' part of 'Top Secret'." Kensi answered with a smile. "Regardless, I was quite happy for the all expenses paid trip to Hawai'i. I'd happily sign non-disclosure forms for that."

"It's not all it's cracked up to be, believe me."

"You don't like it here?" She asked.

"I don't like it here."

"Don't listen to him, okay," Steve said. "He likes it here just fine. His family is here, I'm here, and he's better on a board than he realizes."

"Joe tells me you've been feeling a bit overwhelmed though," Kensi powered on through, getting back on track. "You've only just learned of your magic now?"

"Apparently it all started when I met Steve."

"I don't have anyone else that I'm connected to, like you do. I just have myself to worry about. I mean, I have a partner at work but he's… well, he's my partner, he's not magic or supernatural, or anything. He's a regular guy. He keeps me grounded though, won't let me get away with anything."

"Steve's a vampire," Danny said.

"I noticed," Kensi smiled at Steve. "I saw you doing a threat assessment. It was all in the eyes."

"You learn that at witch school?" Steve asked.

"I learned that after years of working for a government agency." She turned to Danny, "Maybe we should talk in private."

He gave a small nod, extracted himself from the bench and followed Kensi to go sit elsewhere, not failing to see her snatch the box of loco moco and take it with her.

They sat for a while. Kensi told him about how her life worked: she did her job for NCIS which had its moments, and on her off time, she spent the majority of it honing her magic. Her partner tried to get her to engage more with life around her, but sometimes she just had to beg off because she was too tired to deal with it all. The more she talked, the more he found himself nodding along. There really were similarities to their lives, at least on a general level.

Danny found himself opening up in return, sharing with her how he'd been thrown so off kilter by discovering he had magic, his own denial of it for so long, and just how tired he'd been juggling all the different aspects of his life, especially when sometimes he just wanted to be with his daughter, or be with Steve, and not worry about his responsibilities, or just being too tired to do anything.

Kensi's advice had been simple: 'make time'.

Tell people that he wanted to do something, and unless something important came up that took priority, make sure to do what he wanted, with whoever he wanted. Her mentor, 'Hetty', she said the name was, had told her something similar, and had cut her slack occasionally when she needed it.

Danny followed Kensi's eyes and looked back to where Joe and Steve were deep in conversation, still aware of where Kensi and Danny were.

"Joe's a good guy, he's helped me out before. He means well, but there's nothing wrong with telling him where to get off."

"I thought that's what I did last week, when I said no more magic. Yet, here he is, bringing you out here, colluding with Steve."

Kensi shook her head. "I don't think that's what he's doing. I think he knows that you actually do like the magic, you just need to learn how to balance everything out again."

"I don't know…"

"Just because he said it's some ultimate destiny, doesn't mean anything. Don't be stubborn about it just to try and prove him wrong. Let nature take it's course. 'Destiny' doesn't have to get in the way of your life, and living it how you like it."

"All you're really telling me to do is take charge of the situation."

Kensi took the last bite of her loco moco and let the moment stand for a second. "Pretty much."

They laughed, which brought them to Joe and Steve's attention again.

"I think we better go back over to them before Steve thinks you're hitting on me."

"What's his deal anyway? Sam didn't tell me he was so intense."

"Don't worry about him," Danny said, standing. "He's just his own special brand of crazy."

* * *

Meeting Kensi had actually done Danny some good. During their next case he felt much more grounded and despite the changes in Five-0 over the past months, he felt that they were working well together.

He and Steve always worked well together, of course, when they were out doing their part in the investigations, and this one was no different. Steve even seemed more relaxed. It probably helped that Danny had spoken to Joe and agreed to work with him again, while also promising Steve that he could do whatever he wanted that night for in return for Danny being such a stubborn ass lately.

Plans change, though. And with Five-0, there was always the possibility of things changing on a regular basis, especially during an investigation when they were working flat out. But this time was all Steve's fault. He was told not to engage in hand to hand and what had he done?

Danny was pissed about that, about seeing Steve go gung-ho, but it was the fact that Steve had agreed to this ridiculous MMA fight that had Danny worried. Charity or not, Danny was worried.

Steve had thought being a vampire would mean he had an edge, on top of the fact that it wasn't a problem since he'd heal fast, but the charity had put him up against another vampire, so there went his edge.

Danny had asked Lori to help him out, to try and talk Steve out of it, but she'd said she wasn't successful. It niggled at Danny, like she hadn't put effort into it. Like she wanted Steve to go into this fight.

What would it prove? Sure, Steve was doing this for charity, but he was determined to fight. Did he miss it? Was this why he took the risks he did on Five-0? Was it about frustration, pent up anger, something from the vampire side of him where he had to exert his power and control?

"Stay down!" He shouted at Steve, "Let's go home, can we go home now? It's charity, don't get up."

He was not happy at Steve for going harder at the fight after Danny asked him to take it easy. There had been some hairy moments. The guy he was up against was a bigger vamp than Steve, but he liked to think Steve had experience to win the day and it had been a long, hard fought fight until that end moment that made everyone in the stadium let out a collective 'ouch'.

Back in the locker room, Danny didn't care about the outcome of the fight, he was just glad that Steven had all his body parts still attached and that he wasn't permanently marred in some way. The others were still on a high from what they'd seen, making fun of Steve and congratulating him on some of his more insane moves.

"What did you think, Danno?" Suddenly everyone's attention shifted from Steve to Danny.

"What do I think? I think you were already touched in the head and now I have no idea what this fight just knocked out of place up there."

"You gonna knock it back into place for him, brah? A little headboard action?" Kono asked, with a saucy grin.

"Kalakaua, you are a disgusting human being, I hope you know that. Get your mind out of the gutter."

Everyone laughed at them, though Lori kept nearer the corner leaning against the lockers, watching them more intently. Steve got to his feet with only a slight wince and padded over to where Danny stood. He put his arms around Danny's waist and they swayed together.

"I'm fine, I'm in one piece and in a few hours, it'll be like I was never in a fight."

"Just because you heal quickly, doesn't make it okay that you get yourself hurt." Danny placed his hands over Steve's biceps. "You worried me. I hate that."

"I know," Steve nodded, he was serious but he was still smiling. "Your concern is appreciated." He leaned down and kissed Danny lightly before pulling back. "Beers are on you tonight, right?"

"I did promise you could do what you wanted at some point. So you want to cash that offer in on my buying the beer?"

Steve halted every motion in his body and there was silence apart from the muted sniggers from behind them. "On second thought, how about I get my stuff and we go home? I've got much bigger plans for you."

He let Danny go. After hugging Kono again and slapping his hand into Chin's, he turned back to Danny and began pushing him out of the room. Danny gave a half wave to Lori, which was reciprocated with a small smile and then let Steve badger him all the way to the car. He was manhandled in and Steve dashed around to the drivers' seat.

"Drive like a human. Please. I don't care what you have planned, I'd prefer not to crash and die on the way."

"One, I'm not a human and two, I drive in a perfectly reasonable way, grandpa, okay? Now put your belt on and let's get home."

* * *

Danny barely made it in the door. There was a thump beside him as Steve's gym bag hit the floor, there were the small beeps of the alarm being reset and then he was grabbed from behind and hoisted up the stairs. He was pretty sure he only stepped on half of the stairs on their way up, such was Steve's determination to get him to their bed.

Steve was still in his fight clothes. All he did was toe off his shoes and shuck his shorts before getting to work on Danny's t-shirt and jeans. Steve crawled over him as he pulled the offending material from Danny's legs.

"Aren't you going to shower? You just had a hell of a work out."

Steve shook his head. "Exactly. I want to smell myself on you."

"You want to reaffirm?" Danny's t-shirt was yanked over his head. "I thought we did everything enough that you never needed a major blow out."

"I don't. I just want to do it." Steve held himself up over Danny, the muscles in his arms straining and still glistening with sweat. "I want to taste every inch of you." He leaned down and began to kiss and suckle against Danny's neck, just below his ear, and work his way down.

"Taste?"

Steve nodded against him. "Everywhere."

Danny knew what Steve meant. He wanted to sink his teeth into Danny, he wanted to create the human pin cushion again. He was strangely fine with it. His clothes would cover the majority of the bite marks, and since they'd discussed it before, Steve had tried to stick with using the same area of Danny's body to let others heal first. Tonight, he wanted to mark him up again though.

Maybe it was his new link to Danny, the Guild's official link to him that spurned this on. Maybe that was why Danny was feeling fine with letting him do it, or perhaps it was simply because he was a man of his word and he'd promised Steve anything this evening.

Steve made his way down Danny's chest, his arms lowering to let him move closer to Danny, their bodies touching more and more along their lengths as he used teeth, lips and tongue over Danny's heart. He crawled further until he got to Danny's hip. Danny could feel Steve's stubble scratch at his skin, he felt a vibration rumble from Steve's throat as he lay close to him and then he felt the sting as Steve's fangs extended and pierced his skin.

His mouth gaped open, he would have made a sound and possibly he did, but he didn't hear anything. He was simply lost in the sensation and he knew he was growing more aroused by it. As he rode the high, he was aware of it not lasting as long as usual, but it wouldn't, because Steve was moving on. Just as he thought he was coming out of it, he felt the sting again, only this time it was on his leg.

He felt Steve's hands everywhere at once as he floated. He felt the trail in slow motion, his brain slow to react to the stimulation. He was aware of being covered over again, of a heavy weight on him and then his neck got the same treatment he was more used to. There was a push and pull as he fought his way out of the bite high. He loved the feel of it, of floating, of enjoying how Steve drank from him and yet, like this, as much as he liked it, he pushed it aside so he could concentrate on what else Steve was doing to him, about how turned on he was and the other kinds of pleasure he could feel. It was like being torn between two amazing choices and he couldn't decide which he liked more.

As Steve kissed him again, he felt his own goofy grin answer him, though he wasn't entirely sure what Steve asked, so lost was he in feeling his way through this. There may have been a few questions, all of which the answer to was 'yes, God, yes'.

He was moved onto his stomach, Steve's hands everywhere again as they repositioned him. He felt blissed out, ready for Steve to do anything. He blinked, coming back to himself as Steve's fingers penetrated him.

Although he'd never admit it, he loved when Steve bit him during sex. The change between the high the toxin gave him, and the arousal that Steve brought out in him with strokes of his fingers, licks of his tongue and scrapes of his teeth were a heady mix, but he didn't normally find himself responding to so many bites at once. Usually Steve bit him as he came, or just after, not while their pleasure was building.

As Steve finally pushed into him, his brain was clear of the toxin, but it had been turned to mush by Steve's more physical presence in and around him.

"Steve, can you take more?" he asked.

"I've not taken too much," he placated, thinking Danny was worried about blood loss.

"Good. Do it again."

"Again?" Steve growled and pushed harder into Danny, trying not to let his rhythm falter. "You want more? Want me to keep marking you up, baby?"

"Please," Danny asked, his voice heading to a higher pitch with Steve's thrusts. "I want to feel you. You taste everything, I'll feel everything."

Steve's response was to growl through indecipherable platitudes. He leaned down over Danny, the angle changing, the rhythm off kilter, and he grabbed Danny's arms, both of them, and pulled them hard behind his back. Danny didn't know why. He didn't know why Steve was taking his time, he just knew if he didn't do anything soon, then Danny wouldn't last much longer.

All he got out was 'Babe, please' before Steve sunk his teeth into Danny's bicep and it was enough. It was more than enough. He got a double whammy of pleasure rolling through his body in waves and Steve fell through the same barrier not long after, biting down on Danny's other arm as he did so.

It had been perfect. It felt like some sort of circle, the way their bodies were joined in two different ways.

Danny collapsed onto the bed, barely aware that he'd been lifted up enough to be off the mattress. His face was buried in the pillow and his breath was hot against the smothering cotton, uncomfortably so, but he didn't care. There was a tender touch of Steve's hand trailing up and down his spine, like he was petting him, and it felt good to his slightly battered body. Eventually he pushed himself around, losing the darkness of the pillow and staring up towards the moonlit ceiling. He was slowly becoming aware of the bite marks over his body, though the other good thing about the vampire toxin was that it closed the wounds quickly. He glanced down at himself, gave a small frown, then decided that right now he really didn't care.

He turned to Steve, who looked vaguely worried that he'd gone too far, despite that during everything Danny had been right there with him. "You okay?"

"I'm good, really good." Danny smiled. "Do you have any idea how good it feels to have you wrapped around me, feeling the blood high when you, you know, fuck me into the mattress?"

Steve grinned, proud of himself and relieved that Danny was okay with everything. "I don't know. Do you have any idea how good you taste, how good it feels to taste you when you abandon yourself to me?"

Danny reached a hand to cup Steve's jaw. "Don't get used to it. As amazing as it feels, I can't keep being marked up like this all the time."

"I know," Steve nodded and then cuddled in against Danny's side, his octopus arms pulling him in tight, his legs slipping between Danny's. "I swear you burn brighter when we're…"

"I do?"

"It's like you give yourself over or something. Maybe when you stop thinking so hard about it, the magic just does more."

"Or maybe it's you. Maybe you bring it out in me here too. Makes sense if the Guild are right about us being destined and all."

"You beginning to believe?"

"I believe that you believe."

"It's a start…" Steve nuzzled against Danny's neck and sighed against him, the heat of his breath making Danny shiver a little. Steve pulled the sheets up over them as they lay together, hands playing against whatever skin was close. Heartbeats calming, they drifted off.


	3. Chapter 3

Steve and Danny had been trick or treating with Grace when the call came in, and they'd had to take her back to Rachel's. Grace had been bummed, but she'd been annoyed at Steve for not putting on a costume. He'd argued that as a vampire he was a ready made costume, but she wasn't having it. She accused him of not putting any effort into it, which had caused an argument at the house and then tension while they went to the first few houses. It made Grace smile to get to call it off early, which just annoyed Danny because he blamed Steve for ruining their night.

They'd arrived at the Heiau still in a mood with each other, even though Steve was still trying to apologize. They saw Kono up ahead and began walking to her when a man in ratty clothing jumped out in front of them.

"Go," he said gruffly staring directly at Steve.

"Excuse me?" Steve asked, trying to get around him.

"You're forbidden, vampire."

"It's like being back in Jersey," Danny say, putting his arm on Steve's and trying to direct him away, "Sleep it off, buddy."

Kono came and filled them in, Danny immediately scoffing at the idea of ghosts. Even as they came to the Heiau he was unhappy about having to wait for the place to be blessed. He was about to give in and just go get the evidence himself when he took in the stares from some of the people around them.

"Okay, what's everyone looking at now?" Danny asked, gesturing around himself.

"I think it's you, baby," Steve answered, looking around too and then putting his arm out to clutch onto Danny's.

"What did I do? I haven't done anything."

"I think they're waiting for you to bless the Heiau," Chin said, as he saw them waiting.

"Priests have magic, they must think that's you." Kono agreed.

"But how do they know I have any magic?"

"It's not hard to see," came a voice from behind. Steve turned to see the Kahu had arrived and was looking at Danny. "when you know what you are looking for. Many around you right now can see it in you, just as you, in them. The spirits like you. You have been blessed by the heart of the sun." He gestured to his own chest, right where Danny could see the magic in him.

Danny looked at the man, "It's a shame I don't believe in them."

"You may not, but they believe in you."

"That, I don't know what that is, that doesn't make any sense to me."

The Kahu turned to Steve, "Your dedication is admirable, vampire."

"Thank you," Steve answered.

"Be careful," he warned Steve. "Sometimes what you fear is right in front of you."

The Kahu moved past them both and into the Heiau where he could do what he came here for and bless the area. Both men looked after him, trying to weigh up his words and whether or not they believed him, or even understood him.

They waited for permission to enter, all the while Danny kept up a quiet running commentary that the Kahu could be contaminating the evidence that was already deteriorating by being out in the open. When they were finally allowed in, Steve watched as Danny declined the chance and let Chin, Kono and Lori explore.

After processing the scene as much as they could in the dark, they headed back to the car and found a giant boulder halfway inside the windscreen.

"My car," Danny said, stunned.

"Wow," Steve said.

"Don't say that. Don't 'wow' me. This is your fault. I don't know how yet, but it is and I will prove it."

"Wow," Steve said again to wind Danny up for his own amusement. "It's your car, how can it be my fault?"

"I just said I don't know yet," Danny said, exasperated.

Steve could only wonder who they'd pissed off. It was amusing, if only to see the look on Danny's face with his beloved Camaro's window broken. On the other hand, it was worrying that they'd been attacked in a surreptitious manner. Before he climbed in, he took a good look around, but everyone he could see was a member of HPD and was busy working.

* * *

The next day they were back at the Heiau and while there, another rock was thrown through the window of Danny's car, only this time it was the rear window. Chin tried to stifle his laugh but was unsuccessful. Steve took it more seriously this time, beginning to worry about Danny's safety and that someone had access to their car. The car was one of their haven's, like their house. It smelled of them, it held memories of them. With this second attack on it, Steve silently contemplated who would encroach on their property.

"How does this even happen?" Danny asked.

"Maybe it's a consequence of not believing in the spirits. The Kahu said they liked you and then you dismissed them."

"Oh right, a ghost! A ghost busted my windows, is that really what you believe?"

"I'm just saying, a rock through your window is a nice way for them to tell you that they are actually here." Chin responded.

"Okay. Okay," Danny started. "Let me ask you a question. HPD. They secured this area, correct?" He pointed at both Chin and Steve.

"They closed the access road down the night of the murder," Steve responded.

"Okay, so let's just imagine, for a moment, that a living, breathing human being did this to my car. I know, it's crazy, let's just imagine it." Steve shared an indulgent smile with Chin as Danny continued, "How is it that somebody got here, came in, left and nobody said anything. Twice."

Steve raised his hand. "He never left." Both of them shared looks and came to the same conclusion.

"The homeless guy," Danny realized. "That homeless guy told us not to come in here the night of the murder."

With the realization, they now had a suspect. Steve and Danny donned their vests and headed into the surrounding wooded area. Guns drawn, they split up and stalked around the area, all the while in contact through their ear pieces, which was reassuring to Steve. He was glad Danny kept talking the whole time he was out of his sight. They approached what looked like a camp and found evidence from the scene that they'd been missing. As the homeless guy returned, his eyes spat fury at Steve and he shouted that he'd warned him to stay away. Neither man was in the mood to indulge him and Steve had him cuffed quickly. And he wasn't sorry if he tightened the cuffs a little too much, or accidentally shoved the man too hard on their way back to a police cruiser.

* * *

The man was passionate, Steve had to give him that. He saw it in himself to protect the Heiau and Steve couldn't help but think the man was unhinged enough to kill to protect it. He was very relieved that Hesse hadn't been in some way involved in coming after them, but then the rocks were never Hesse's style. It was good to know that they'd rounded the guy up fast, before he did any more damage, or pissed Steve off even more.

Steve was intent on his thoughts, letting Danny take control of the interrogation. It was when Danny brought up the rock in his windshield that the conversation shifted and Steve perked up again.

"That was you," Danny told him.

"Your car?" He asked, looking slightly confused.

"Yes, my car, the one with the broken windows thanks to you."

"No, no, his car." The man gestured to Steve with his shoulder, unable to point with his hands cuffed behind his back. "His car, he drives it."

Danny smiled up at Steve, despite the situation. Steve could tell what Danny meant with that look, that it was even obvious to someone who saw them just once, that Steve was exerting control by driving Danny's car. That he was so obviously comfortable with it that it seemed he did it all the time, ergo, it looked like it was Steve's car.

As Danny gave him a wide eyed look of 'see?', he scowled Danny in return, but turned his attention back to the old veteran.

"You wanted to send me some kind of message?" He asked.

"It's not just the Heiau that needs protecting." The man's eyes softened as he looked at Danny. "The witch does too. All witches should be protected. Too important."

Danny was aware of the guy's limited magic. Both he and Lori had stated that they could see something small in him. Steve could only guess that he wasn't just unhinged about the spirituality of the Heiau but about magic as well. It was like a hero worship, but that wasn't ever a good thing, not really, and it worried him.

"I'm not a witch," Danny said, "And I don't need protecting. Even if I did, this guy does a fine job, thanks."

"I'm his protector," Steve challenged the old man. He wanted to push him, to see if they could get some sort of confession from him over the murders, to show that he wasn't all there in the head. But he also wanted the man to know that Steve was Danny's protector and he wouldn't put up with anyone doubting him.

"The woman," he eyed Lori who was leaning on the wall at the back of the room. "The woman protects, she has magic, she stays by him."

"I think I missed something," Lori said looking puzzled.

"Vampire. Vampires don't know magic, vampires can't help magic."

"This vampire can," Steve walked a little closer to the man, bent down and looked him in the eye. "Look at me, hey. This one is mine to protect, you stick to the Heiau. You try anything with us again, and I'll show you just how far I'll go to protect him."

Lori had been quiet behind them but as they left interrogation she spoke up. "So does one of you want to elaborate on all of that?"

Danny scowled at Steve and gestured to his face and rolled his eyes. "Aneurism," he said and then caught up to Lori's steps. "According to Joe, Steve has something to do with this whole key thing and he's some kind of protector."

"Steve's the protector?"

"That's what I just said."

"No, wait," Lori stopped, her hand shot out to halt Danny in his tracks. "That's not possible."

"I'm surprised Joe didn't tell you," Steve said.

"So am I, but he can't have told you that," Lori looked confused.

"Well, he did, and Steve believes it. A little too much if you ask me," Danny smiled.

"Leave it, Danno, we've had this conversation enough times."

"You can't be the protector, you're a vampire. It's supposed to be 'one of our own', it's supposed to be… I mean, that's what the spell said."

"Spell was wrong, or the interpretation, whatever, can we move on, please? We've got to work out what the hell is going on here and as much as this guy is clearly wacky, I don't like him for this. It's too complicated for him."

* * *

Lori had stuck with them for the majority of the rest of the investigation, but her own version of hovering was creeping Steve out a little. It was like she was weighing them up again.

Once they knew who they were after, she was hurt at one of the scenes and immediately put it aside as nothing, even though Steve was concerned for her. She was burying her pain, he could see it in her eyes. She was trying to be strong for them, but sometimes you just had to admit you were hurt. He decided to let it slide. Whatever she was trying to prove, he'd let her come to him about it later.

"What are you thinking?' Steve asked Danny as they drove home that night, smelling of formaldehyde and ash.

"I'm not thinking much of anything, I'm too tired for that," Danny answered. "But I am curious about what that Kahu said."

"You beginning to believe, Danno?"

"No, no I'm not, I'm just pondering how he took his magic down a spiritual route. I'm just wondering, how delusional he may or may not be about magic and spirits and the cosmos and…"

"Destiny?" Steve interrupted.

"Something like that yeah."

"When Kensi was here last week, she seemed to give you some kind of perspective on everything. Did the Kahu change that?"

"No. Kensi helped. The Kahu just got me thinking. Lori seemed upset earlier. You say something to her?" He changed the subject.

"Why would I upset her?"

"I'm just saying she was fine this morning, then after the interrogation, and when we put all the pieces together, she seemed like she wasn't happy with you."

"Whatever her problem is, it's not me."

"Pretty sure it's you."

"It wasn't me, and I'm not having this conversation now because we are home, and it's time to switch off from work." Steve unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door, assuming Danny would follow him to the house, which he did, and they fell easily into an evening routine until they slumped together on the couch.

"You thirsty?" Danny asked.

"Little bit."

On auto-pilot, Danny unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it aside, Steve keeping one eye on the television, and one eye on Danny's movements. That was when the familiarity of the act struck him.

"Wow," he said, as he helped pull back Danny's shirt, but didn't move to drink from him yet.

"What's the 'wow' for this time?"

"I was just thinking how easy this is now. How you just offer up your body to me to drink from without much thought." He ran a hand over Danny's chest and down to his waist where he held on tight, pulling Danny's body against his own. "Do you have any idea how hot it is that you trust me so much?"

Danny laughed a little, his body shaking with it against him, and Steve smiled against Danny's neck.

"Are you getting off on the whole 'sexy vampire' thing?"

"Are you?" Steve asked in return.

"Little bit. Maybe more than a little," Danny added as Steve nipped at his neck. "But, babe, you are not Edward Cullen. I'm just saying."

"Of course not," Steve smiled as he let his fangs out and listened to the steady thrum of the blood in Danny's veins. "I'm much better."


	4. Chapter 4

Danny was doing better. Steve was being supportive of whatever decisions he was making, and when Danny told them he needed a break, no one argued with him. He'd been getting frustrated though. As much as he had been able to access his magic strongly that one night, since then it had been hit and miss and not nearly as powerful or as sustained.

It was the beginning of a new night. Steve and Danny had driven up to Mount Tantalus together after a quiet day for Five-0. Lori had left the office first, citing that she had a few things to take care of before joining them at the the retreat. When they went in, they only found Joe White sitting at the kitchen table.

Danny was tired. With it being quiet for Five-0, he'd put a little more effort into magic, so he felt like he hadn't really had a 'slow' period. As much as he was coming to terms, slowly, with enjoying his magic, he was frustrated at stalling and he wasn't looking forward to another night of failed stops and starts. Sometimes he felt like all he was doing was pushing Steve's Marquis up a hill on a hot day - something he regrettably knew all too well.

So he was surprised to find that Joe was sitting nursing a coffee when they arrived. "Sit down." Joe gestured to the seats beside him.

They sat. Steve was wary and a little tense; Danny could feel it where their arms touched. Steve reached a hand out for one of Danny's under the table and grasped it over his thigh.

"Is there a problem?" Danny asked.

"I've been thinking. Trying to work out why you're still not getting where you need to be."

"If you tell me I need to take some kind of drug or something, then that's a no right off the bat," Danny started.

"You think you know why?" Steve asked, cutting Danny off and scowling slightly at him for his tone.

"Steve, do you know why vampires and magic don't get along well?"

"There's no handbook when you become a vampire. You just know they don't and if you're stupid enough to test it, you find out quickly enough, why?"

"The Guild have some insight into it. It's more theoretical but it makes sense." Joe regarded them both. "When we say magic doesn't work on vampires and vampires can't attack magic, it's a fairly basic way of looking at it. We in the Guild see it as the battle of opposites. Magic is light, it's alive, it comes from inside and works in time with our lives. Vampires are darker creatures, you died to become one, your heart doesn't beat. Both of us have heightened abilities from normal people because of who we are. But when light and dark come together…"

"It cancels each other out?" Steve asked. Danny followed along. It seemed a bit like a yin and yang and it made a kind of sense. Joe seemed pleased that they were understanding.

"Exactly. A witch or Guardian who attacks a vampire can try and whip something up but it fizzles before it can do any harm. In return, though a vampire may not realize it, they lose their strength when physically attacking someone with magic. It's like being de-fanged."

"That makes sense. Over the years, taking down practitioners has always seemed to take more energy or something."

Joe nodded. "Unless one can best the other in basic hand to hand, you're at a stalemate. Neither species likes the odds, not really, so over time we've learned to stay out of each others' way and lost the knowledge of why we do so. But for those in military and law enforcement, there's a reason why you still get trained so well."

"The social studies lesson is great, but what does that have to do with me?" Danny asked.

"Because a few weeks ago, when you lit up so bright, you did so in Steve's presence."

"But I've always been able to see something in Danny," Steve said, "It stands to reason I'd see that too. I thought that was all to do with the protector thing."

"Which also raises the question of why magic chose a vampire, when vampires aren't supposed to be touched by magic."

"More mysteries, great, still not seeing the connection to my crappy attempts to throw fireballs yesterday, or the levitation stuff from two days before that…" Danny trailed off.

"The pair of you are a matched set. Somehow. Neither of your abilities diminish in the others' presence, you activated when you met, and I'm beginning to think that you're stronger together. Tonight, I think it would be best to try magic with Steve in the room with us. It took a lot of convincing to get the other Directors to let a vampire into a training session, but after some persuading they've voted that I be given a chance to prove I'm right."

Steve turned to Danny, squeezing his hand slightly and looking pleased with himself. "You need me."

"Don't let it go to your head, Rambo. From what I just heard, you need me too."

"That was never in question," Steve smiled. Danny didn't know how to take the statement. The smile made it seem like Steve was pulling his chain, but the tone in his voice sounded more earnest.

Like a fascinated puppy, Steve joined them in the training room. There was no lesson to get Steve up to speed, he was thrown in the deep end, but he didn't have anything to do except be there as support. Joe said he didn't think there was anything Steve could conceivably do except be close. At first they continued on like Steve wasn't standing behind them, but it distracted Danny too much to know Steve's eyes were on him like that. Instead, he demanded Steve be somewhere in his line of sight, even if it was off to the side.

After a few small failed attempts and muttered curses, Danny took a deep breath as Joe instructed and concentrated on conjuring up a fireball that he could hold in his hand. Normally it could last a few seconds before Danny succumbed to it's fake heat and burned his hand. The last few lessons, Joe had tried to get the teaching right over the whole there/not there situation with magic, and Danny tried to understand, but his logical brain, that had over 30 years experience believing what his physical senses told him, was hard to overcome.

Steve came closer as the third attempt failed and Danny's hand turned red, the skin not happy. Steve's hand rubbed down Danny's arm as he controlled the pain and waited for it to recede as the magic healed him from the non-existing fireball.

"Danny, you can do this, you've seen other people do it. Jenna did it the day we met her."

"Yeah, and she'd been doing it a lot longer than 4 months, so excuse me for taking so long." Danny's frustration was hitting again and he batted Steve's hand away only for it to return a moment later, along with Steve's other hand, which pulled him in closer and rubbed down his back.

"You're supposed to be calm in order to do this. I know that's a stretch for you on any given day, but I have seen you calm occasionally, so how about you focus on calm things. Like the waves crashing on the shore…"

"You know I hate the waves. It took me an age to get used to hearing them outside the house."

"Bad example. How about-"

"No, just, quiet, I get the point, I can think of something for myself. Maybe some rush hour traffic on the Jersey turnpike or something…" Danny interrupted, smiling up at Steve who leaned down to kiss him lightly before pulling back. He still hovered close by and in Danny's line of sight in case he was needed again before Danny took another attempt at it.

Holding his hand out he took a deep breath, closed his eyes and started the fire in his hand. The heat began as it always did; warm, obviously there, but nothing too difficult to handle. He opened his eyes and looked into the fire. It was holding. He turned his head to look at Steve and practically forgot he was even holding the fire as he saw Steve's radiant grin, happy that Danny was doing better than ever before. Now he stood longer, not furiously dropping the fire in pain.

Danny hadn't realized what he'd been thinking or not thinking, he'd just been looking at Steve, and had somehow switched off his worries. Steve was there, he'd protect him. The thought had been in his head before he'd realized and it seemed so incredibly true that he had a moment of clarity that Joe had been right, and Steve was important to the magic in him as well. He was beginning to understand what was meant by witches communing with the magic inside them. It was almost like another entity inside that spoke a different language. They were struggling to understand each other right now but there were moments when everything was clear.

He lifted his other hand and produced another fireball in that one to rival the first. Joe hadn't asked him to do it. While he was standing there, Joe had merely given positive praise for what he'd done so far, and likely didn't expect him to do anything bigger yet.

He held the two glowing embers up and stared at them, then joined them together into a bigger ball. The magic made him feel safe still, Steve's presence made him still feel like this was okay, and then he had an idea in his head that he could do more with it. He switched off from what was around him, faded out Joe and Steve's voices but kept aware of their presences, and instead focused on intensifying the fire. The heat from it grew, he could feel it on his face like sitting in front of a campfire, but with the heat of a burning sun. The fireball lost it's flickers and began to turn more orange, then yellow and it spun in his hands, he could feel it. It began to go a white color, blindingly bright in the center.

He pulled his hands apart and it grew wider with him but it dawned on him that he had no idea what to do with it, and despite the magic feeling strong inside him to contain it longer, he felt he had to shut it down. He pushed his hands back together, clapping them in front of himself and the light dissipated, fizzling away, a slight smoke rising from his palms as he pulled them apart again.

He could still feel the strength inside him as he stared at his now empty hands, the power was enticing. Was that what witches felt? The burden of responsibility for wielding that kind of power?

Hands grasped at his shoulders, one sneaking to his chin, pulling his face up to look. It was Steve, he saw Steve's eyes and smiled. "Hey."

"What the hell was that, were you not listening to us?" Steve seemed angry, his voice raised.

"Danny that was reckless, you should have stopped when I said, you could have seriously hurt yourself producing something that like so quickly." Joe said from close beside. When had he come across the room?

"You said what now?" Danny asked, confused. They hadn't told him to stop.

"Goddamnit, he zoned." Joe said to Steve. "He got drawn in and focussed solely on the magic. It's dangerous. It only happens to witches because the magic is so powerful, so compelling, it's been known to leave them comatose."

"Danny," Steve growled, looking back at him annoyed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize." Danny said, waves of exhaustion creeping up on him as he became more fully aware of his surroundings again. Joe had explained zoning before when they were starting out. He had considered it a possibility because though Danny wasn't a witch, he had the powerful magic of one and it could be a danger. Especially since he was a novice learning quickly. He understood the concept and now that he'd experienced it, he understood why it was enticing.

"You're lucky you have Steve to ground you," Joe said, turning away and wiping his face. "You can't do any more tonight, best if you go home. Take care of him."

Steve nodded and began to lead Danny away. He didn't say anything until they got to the car. As Danny leaned his back against it, he looked up to see Steve still sporting his annoyed face.

"Aneurism face, stop it, I get it. It's not like I meant it to happen."

"If you ever worry me like that again…"

"Steve, seriously, babe, please…" Danny didn't know what to actually say, he was just throwing out words and hoping to placate Steve in any way his tired brain could come up with.

"I don't want you even thinking about magic unless I'm with you. We've just established that I'm like a catalyst and then you almost hurt yourself doing it? No practicing on your own, or with Lori, unless I'm there. You got it?"

"Steve," Danny slumped his shoulders, realizing which Steve he was talking to right now - the control freak with a possessive streak a mile wide.

"No, Danny. I mean it. I don't care about toning it down right now. You worried me. A coma? Seriously? That's a possibility?"

Danny reached his hands out and pulled Steve closer. "Okay, Steve, okay. I promise. Anything you need, babe."

Steve wrapped an arm around Danny's shoulder, pulling him in tighter and laid his head on Danny's temple. "You're just saying that because you're too tired to argue."

Danny laughed lightly, hearing the slight bump in Steve's voice as he spoke, the worry giving way. "True, but I mean it. We'll just skip the argument where you wear me down to your way of thinking. Just this once though, don't be getting used to it."

Steve reached behind Danny and opened the door, maneuvering them and pushing Danny down into the car. He leaned in over Danny to kiss him before closing the door and circling round to the drivers' side. "Let's get you home," he said as he started the car.

* * *

Danny woke and groaned. Once again the last thing he properly remembered was driving home from the retreat, and now he was feeling well rested and was waking in bed. He reached a hand out to find the bed empty this time, Steve out for his morning swim, but probably also wanting to avoid Danny's indignation at having been brought into the house practically unconscious again.

He turned to see he'd woken just before the alarm was due to go off for him. He reached out with a groan and shut it down before it could start. He threw the sheet back and plodded into the bathroom to start getting ready.

He went through his morning routine the same as any other day, feeling more awake by the time he jumped downstairs for breakfast. Steve came in from his swim, dripping over the kitchen floor, earning himself a 'hey!' from Danny as he grabbed the towel on the table and ran upstairs. Danny shook his head as he used a dishcloth to wipe up the drops of water and finished making breakfast for the two of them.

When Steve returned 10 minutes later it was to find Danny sitting at the table, halfway through his cereal, and Steve's healthy shake and a blood bag sitting opposite him. "Thanks, baby," Steve said, leaning down to kiss Danny quickly before sitting opposite him.

"Did you carry me into the house again last night?" Danny asked.

"Yeah," Steve answered after gulping down half the blood.

"I really need to stop falling asleep on the way home. You'll make a habit out of it."

"I don't mind."

"I know. That's the problem. I don't want you so comfortable getting me into a princess lift so often. You'd end up enjoying it too much, I know how your brain works, Captain Caveman."

"That's Commander Caveman, thank you," Steve smiled and then his phone rang. He looked at it oddly. "It's Jenna," he said before pressing to answer. "Hello? Yeah, it's good to hear from you, too…. you're here?…. sure, how about at Kamekona's in 2 hours… okay."

"She's on the Island again?' Danny asked, catching enough of Steve's side to understand.

"She says there's been a development in her fiancé's case that she wants to talk to me about. Says she needs my help. We've got a quiet day unless the criminals of Hawai'i decide to annoy us so we can go up together in a bit."

"Babe, as much as I get the whole 'staying together' thing you've been doing, I've got a butt-load of paperwork to do and there's no need for both of us to go. I'll be at Headquarters with the team, you can go see her on your own." Danny hardened his eyes. "We made a deal. Less hovering. Less control freak."

"But last night-"

"Last night makes no difference. I said I wouldn't do magic without you and I meant it. No outside force is going to affect that, so there's no need to get your cargoes in a twist."

"Fine, I'll go see what she needs on my own. That mean I'm taking the truck to work today?"

"Yep," Danny smiled, pushing his chair back so he could finish up and they could get going.

* * *

"You said it was important, what's up?" Steve asked Jenna once they were settled on a bench by Kamekona's shrimp truck.

"I have a favor to ask you. It's really big," she answered, looking sheepish, unsure.

"You said already about your fiancé."

"Ever since I heard Josh might be alive in south east Asia I have been pounding the pavement back in D.C. After three months of analyzing classified intel, trading favors… I found him." She began to smile, "Josh is alive."

"Are you kidding me?" Steve leaned over to touch his hand to hers. "That's incredible. Do you know where he is?"

She swallowed. "North Korea. A small rebel faction is holding Josh hostage near the border. They got a hold of him after a CIA op went bad."

"Okay, have you taken this to the agency?"

"Yeah. They can't lift a finger. They have to disavow any and all knowledge of his existence."

"SOP for this kind of job, behind enemy lines, covert op."

"Lori tried to get help from Homeland for me but they said the same thing."

"I didn't realize you had so much contact with Weston," Steve said, feeling strange that Lori wouldn't mention it before. But then why should she if it wasn't Five-0 or Danny related?

"She's been helping me, she found some of the intel, I wouldn't have found Josh without her help."

Steve nodded, getting back to the problem at hand. "What do these rebels want?"

"They're willing to exchange Josh for 250 thousand in US currency. That's where I come in," she said with a deep breath, waiting for Steve to catch on.

"Wait, you're seriously considering going through with this?"

"If I don't, Josh is dead. Do you understand? I have no other options but to pay them." She then told him she sold her parents old house to get the money.

Steve was at a loss as to what to do. North Korea was dangerous to say the least. Jenna alone couldn't go get Josh. What they really needed was a team of SEALs or Rangers, some form of special forces to infiltrate and hopefully not start an international incident.

"Where's this deal going down?" He asked.

"Their turf." She looked scared as she watched for Steve's reaction. "I can't go alone, Steve. I need somebody there to watch my back. I need you."

Steve didn't know how to respond. Alone, sure maybe he could do it. With less people going in there was a better chance of them staying under the radar. In the past, helping a friend like this wouldn't have been an issue for him, but now he had to consider Danny. He'd spent time in jail, been on the run, been up against the world it seemed, and all to make sure he and Danny were able to live their lives. He could go to North Korea with Jenna but he couldn't leave Danny behind. But he couldn't take him with him either. It was far too dangerous. Could he turn Jenna down? She'd helped them out, she'd been the first person to understand what was going on between them, give them some explanations when no one else could. They owed her.

"Let me see what I can sort out," he said, purposely keeping vague.

Jenna hadn't been in the loop since leaving them. She didn't know about Steve's bigger role in Danny's life, hell, they'd only really fleshed that out more the night before so only the two of them and Joe really knew that one right now.

* * *

When he got back to the office, he found out Chin and Danny had gone for lunch together. A moment of aggression towards Chin came over him but he put it aside. Chin's vampire scent was allowed, he'd got used to it, but this morning's meeting with Jenna had him a little off kilter as he struggled with what to do.

He was on the phone quickly, trying to find out if anyone was in the region that Jenna could piggy back on. He would be happy to cash in any favors he held but he was struggling to contact people.

Once the others returned, he told Danny about Jenna's problem. He didn't say much more, just assured Danny he was trying to find people to help. Danny didn't know Steve was still considering going himself. If it came down to it, he could try and make sure he wasn't gone more than a few days. He desperately wanted to stay but there had been no signs of Hesse in a long time, and if they picked up a case, Danny would need to be in charge. Danny had been adamant for months now that Steve was being too dramatic about sticking so close to him, he'd probably be happy for the break.

He continued hunting down anyone he could for hours, but he wasn't having much luck. "Yes, sir, no, thank you sir."

Steve hung up the phone as Danny appeared again in his office. "Whats up, any luck?"

"No. The Ranger unit that supported me in capturing Anton Hesse in North Korea has been redeployed. There's no way they can escort Jenna to the drop site."

"Okay," Danny nodded, considering. "Listen, I know you wanna put on the cape and go save the day, but please keep in mind, please. This is North Korea."

"I'm aware of that, thank you, Danny. I've been trying to work this out all morning."

"Okay, what do you want to do?"

"What am I gonna do?"Steve asked, resigned already to knowing Danny was right. He felt he had to go do it himself now because he couldn't leave her hanging. "I've gotta help her. I'd do the same for anyone else here, I'd do a hell of a lot more for you, you know?"

"Woah, woah, woah. Please," Danny stopped Steve as he came around his desk. "Assuming whatever it is you're about to do, you've done before, right?" Steve could only hope his look would answer Danny. Two hundred years of experience, he'd pretty much done everything possible, and some things a little impossible. "Classified, history, etc. Of course. So you're really doing this?"

"I think so."

"Wow. I asked for a little space, I just didn't think you'd end up going to a different continent."

"Do I, is that concern that I see?" Steve lightened the mood with a grin.

"Yeah, jerk, I'm concerned."

"I'll be fine, it's North Korea, what can go wrong. And I'll make arrangements with Chin to keep an eye on you."

"Of course you will. I'd try to stop you but I'm sure you'll do it anyway. Good thing is, I get to be in charge of things for a while."

"Don't let it go to your head, I'll just be a few days. Hell, I won't even drink while I'm gone, it's going to be that short a trip."

"Sure yeah, do me a favor and watch yourself, huh."

"I'll think about you the whole time. Oh, and no magic, remember."

"Yeah, thanks."

* * *

As Steve wandered out of his office, Danny greeted a smiling Lori at the door, though he had no idea why she'd be so happy on a boring day. He could only assume the two of them made her laugh.

"What did I miss?" She asked.

"Nothing, he's going to help a friend, he'll be gone a couple days." Danny leaned onto the edge of the desk, making himself a little more comfortable even if it wasn't his own office.

Lori's face sobered up. "You don't seem too happy about it. I mean, is it something dangerous?"

"The guy's a two hundred year old vampire Navy SEAL. Everything's fine, nothing to worry about." He felt he was saying it for himself more than her as he answered. Maybe the more he said it, he'd finally believe it. He was surprised he'd kept so calm about it so far as it was. It might sink in later on. Right now 'North Korea' could be anywhere that wasn't Honolulu, it didn't register fully that it was far away, that it was a hostile environment. Steve hadn't seemed concerned when he left, so why should Danny be.

Steve would hide it from him if he was worried, though. He'd not want Danny to worry.

The stupid, reckless, son of a bitch was going to North Korea. What the hell?!

After what they'd recently discovered, despite Danny's protests of 'destiny', this wasn't like Steve to take off. A fine time it was for Steve to start listening to him about all of that.

Yes, they owed Jenna, but did they owe her that much that Steve should waltz into a hostile country to watch her back? Trained or not, it was stupid. He'd run after Steve and stop him, but if he did, Steve would do as he asked. He'd also be unbearably smothering if he thought Danny only did it because he didn't want to be left without him.

Once upon a time, Danny didn't have these kinds of worries. Once he was just a man, just a father, just an ex-husband, just a cop. He took a breath. As much as going back to that wasn't possible, he drew on the strength of it and pulled himself together out of his codependent thoughts.

Steve would be fine. He was trained.

If he wasn't, Danny would kick his ass.

"Listen," Lori interrupted Danny's thoughts. "Is this a bad time to put in for some leave? I know Steve's going, I don't want to leave you guys short it's just… I got word that my brother has been in an accident. I don't know how bad it is, but I feel I need to go to him."

"Uhm, yeah, I'm sorry. Where is he?"

"San Diego. I can be there by morning, there's a redeye I can catch. I'm sorry, Danny, I'm worried. I can come back really fast if you need me for a case. Director White is here for you for anything magic related…"

"Yeah, the three of us can cope. And I'm fine, I don't do magic without Steve around, he made me promise. Yeah, go, be with your family, it's important."

"Thanks Danny," she kissed him on the cheek. "Once I get back, I promise, I'll devote so much time to honing your skills, you'll be sick of the sight of me."

* * *

Steve and Jenna had made contact with people to help them out. They had an old jeep and a driver, and Steve was kitted out with weapons for their journey. He warned Jenna of the dangers. He'd done hostage situations before, he'd had to bargain with the enemy so he laid down the law for her and hoped she'd listen to him properly. She was still a wild card. There was no telling how she'd react to seeing her fiancé again.

If it were Danny in Josh's situation…

That was partly why he'd finally decided he should come along. He couldn't help but feel for Jenna. She'd spent so long looking for Josh, and now he was so close for her. He'd felt the terrible pain of lost love when Thomas had died. He'd felt the guilt weigh on him that he could have done more, or prevented it. Jenna was in the same boat - she felt the op could have been better, she felt she'd messed it up and that led to Josh's kidnapping.

Steve had to know that they could win, that they could beat this. If Hesse was any problem down the road for him and Danny, he had to know that even when it looked bad that things could get better. If it did for Jenna and Josh, then it could for the two of them as well.

They got to the site of the hand over first. Steve looking around warily, scoping out the land around them. It was the middle of nowhere. If something went wrong, there was no cavalry here for them.

He kept his gun in position as a truck pulled closer. He could see three men in the back with another man in fatigues covered in a sack to hide his features. Apart from that there was the driver. Not good odds, should this descend, but so long as Steve didn't get shot in the heart, he'd be mobile enough to hopefully take them out if necessary. None of them struck him as vampires, but the wind was going in the wrong direction.

As they pulled up and got off the back of the truck, Steve could smell vampire on them now. Not all of them, maybe two. That made the odds back in their favor and away from Steve. They brought the hostage to the front of the truck. Jenna tried to make a bolt for Josh, but Steve held her back.

They spoke, luckily with Steve's experience he could understand them, and translated their demands into English for Jenna. Steve could tell this wasn't Josh in front of them. He was too healthy for a captive, and didn't fit what he knew, but Jenna seemed convinced. She was too desperate for it to be him.

The more he saw, the more he really didn't like the situation they were in. Something was off, there was something not right. Hostage trickery was one thing but…

He had no time to dwell on it, as they backed away, the kidnappers realized that they weren't going to fall for anything and quickly it descended into a fire fight. Steve knew he got the human ones, whether or not he clipped the vamps in a decent enough way to keep them down longer, he couldn't be sure.

He knew Jenna was behind him, but he couldn't keep track on her so much with her magic. He knew now how the magic would affect him from her, so it was good that she was further back. Part of him hated knowing more about how magic and vampires worked since it was such a hellish thing to factor in, but now he felt he could be more accurate in what he planned, knowing more about it.

He stopped shooting. No one was shooting back at him. It might be safe for them to move.

Before he could turn to find Jenna, there was the telltale click of a gun from behind. Oh no, someone had got to them, maybe had Jenna?

He turned slowly, shock making him hesitate, not understanding what he was seeing in front of him.

The mop of long blonde hair and slim body attached to a hand gun now being held on Jenna, threatening to shoot if Steve moved.

"Lori?"

Whether it was the magic from Lori and Jenna, or just the shock that distracted him, he didn't know, but pain exploded in him, his mouth unable to make any audible sounds as he felt the knife slip into his back, penetrating his heart, sending him to the ground.

Before blacking out, he looked up and saw Victor Hesse walking around him. His last thought was at least Hesse wasn't in Honolulu, because that's where Danny was.

* * *

A short while later, Steve woke to find himself trussed up with rope, one long one wrapped around his neck like a collar and leash. He was forced to begin walking, the knife still embedded in his back. With Jenna and Lori around, Hesse would be weakened in strength, but so was Steve, and not just by magic but by the pain in his heart. He'd need to get blood in him to fix it, to help strengthen him again.

He didn't know if Hesse knew how much the magic affected him. He could maybe still use it eventually.

"How long has she been working for you?" He asked of Hesse, who was a pace or two in front of him. Lori was behind but in earshot, and still holding her gun on Jenna as they walked. When he was greeted with silence he tried again. "That story Jenna told me about her fiancé, is that true? Do you have him?"

He tried to turn while walking. It was difficult but he was angry, and getting angrier with each step. "What have you done? How long have you been working for him? What have you told him?"

"Do yourself a favor and be quiet," she answered him.

"What do you get out of this?" He narrowed his eyes. He'd been good to Lori, Danny had been good to her. They'd tried to make a point of it, just as Danny wanted when they met. To be betrayed like this stung like never before. Steve's trust issues took yet another beating. It was no wonder he really only trusted Danny completely. He trusted Chin and Kono too, but there was always a tiny niggle, he could never trust anyone so completely, not after what he'd been through in his life. Only Danny had ever broken through.

He was pushed in the back so hard he almost fell over as he was shouted at to keep moving.

He'd never known Hesse to be so quiet, it felt like something bigger was going on here.

If it turned out Lori had brought Danny with her then there would be hell to pay because he would be going crazy on them. He had a feeling that Danny being in danger here, would be like turning back time to when he was first turned. He'd been scared, angry, unable to process what had happened and feral. He'd hated it and fought so hard for control, but the more he worried about what might be happening, the more he felt that control slip away from him.


	5. Chapter 5

Danny had been quite relaxed. Sure, he'd been worried out of his mind, but he was surprisingly relaxed. He was in charge at the office and he'd had a little fun with requisitions, only to realize that it was no different than usual while he forged Steve's signature on the paperwork.

He'd gone home feeling a little bit weird. He put it down to the worry settling in his stomach. He'd found it difficult sleeping and he'd put that down to being alone in the bed without the dip of Steve's weight beside him.

When he woke in the morning, his eyes were gritty, his insides didn't feel good and his head hurt. Typical. Steve left him and now he got sick.

It was a good job it was a Saturday, one without Grace, and he could only hope his luck would hold for the weekend. He stayed in bed longer than usual and it was closer to 11am before he realized there were things his body needed to do, sick or not. He contemplated phoning Steve as he thought it would make him feel better knowing Steve was okay, but he knew he'd sound sick and Steve would hear it, so he didn't want to displace the worrying to Steve.

He tried to eat some lunch, but the only vaguely appealing thing was some toast.

When the phone rang during the early afternoon, he was contemplating between bringing a blanket to the sofa, or just going back up to the bedroom. Whichever he chose, he was going to wallow for the day and contemplate the fact he was on his own while sick.

"WIlliams."

"Danny, it's Joe White. Just wondering if you were running late or FIve-0 caught a case I wasn't aware of."

"Wait, what?"

"You were due here half an hour ago. This is a weekend where Grace is staying with her mom. Last I checked, you and Steve were due a two hour session with me at one o'clock."

"Urgh," Danny flung himself down on the couch. The back of his hand ran over his forehead, mopping up sweat from the low-grade fever he was sporting. "I'm sorry Joe, I'm sick. And Steve's not here anyway."

"What do you mean 'Steve isn't there'?"

"He's helping a friend."

"He left you on your own when you're sick?"

"I got sick after he left."

"I'm sure if you called him he'd be right back for you, I know what he's like."

"He would, but it's a bit more complicated than that. He's not exactly in the States right now."

"He's not in Hawai'i? He went to the mainland?"

"No, he's not in the States. Plural. He's gone to Korea."

"He WHAT?" At Joe's shout, Danny had to pull the phone away from his ear. "What part of 'together' didn't the pair of you understand?! Hold on, I'll be right there."

Before Danny could say anything, Joe hung up. He wasn't up for visitors, but at least it answered the question of bed versus sofa. A little while later there was a knock at the door and Danny shuffled to get it, knowing who it was before opening up.

Joe didn't stand on ceremony and pushed past him into the house, then made a point of helping Danny back over to the couch, making sure he was okay. He started checking Danny over, a hand on his head, looking in his eyes and mouth, though he was no doctor. Danny batted his hands away with a scowl.

"What are you doing?"

"When did he leave?"

"Yesterday. Why's it such a big deal to you that Steve isn't here?"

"Because, you're supposed to stay together. What the hell possessed you to split up like this?"

"What do you mean 'together'? We are together, he's just away for a few days."

"You in Hawai'i and Steve in South East Asia isn't together, you idiot."

"You've got to be kidding me," Danny moaned as he stretched back on the couch. "How were we supposed to know you meant 'together' to be literal when everything else has been so excruciatingly vague!"

"To be honest, I figured the two of you were nigh on inseparable if Steve's attitude was anything to go by. I thought he understood."

"Well he didn't. Neither of us did. He'll be back soon anyway."

"I don't know that we can risk that. You're sick because of the separation and it could get worse. I don't know if he's affected the same way or not, but if he is then it'll be a lot more difficult for him to get back to you."

"Shit," Danny muttered, his stomach sinking. North Korea was dangerous to begin with and Steve had gone out on an operation without back up. As in no backup, none, no Army, no Navy, no Five-0, no Danny. If he was sick too, then it could compromise him and he could be killed. "I hate to bring this up, but aren't I a bit sick to go running after him too?"

"Not if we do it soon. If he is sick, he won't know why, if he isn't, he won't know that you are."

"He has a satellite phone with him. Call it, let him know."

Danny gestured to his own phone, telling Joe to scroll through to find the right number. As Joe sat, he kept looking at his watch as if trying to work out time differences and more. He kept trying but there was no answer. Which just worried him more.

"Okay, here's the plan," Joe said, putting the phone down for the sixth time. "I'll call Lori, get her to come sit with you and I'll use Guild contacts to see if we can find Steve."

"Wow, you really are out of the loop. Lori isn't here either."

"She went with Steve?"

"No, she got a call. Brother's not good. Went to be with him in San Diego."

"Lori doesn't have a brother."

"Brother, family, whatever, she's gone off. She's not here either."

"San Diego?" Joe frowned down at Danny, which is when Danny realized he'd sunk further into the sofa and was losing a battle with gravity. His limbs felt heavy. Joe picked up the phone again and before Danny could ask who he was calling, Joe was talking to Chin. It was decided that he and Kono would come to the house and then they'd work out what to do.

By the time they arrived, Danny had managed to pick himself up again with some Tylenol and orange juice. They all sat on the couches with him as he began. "We've tried Steve's satellite phone twenty times in the last hour. No answer."

"The area they're in is all deep forest. It may have blocked the signal," Kono suggested.

"No, something is wrong," Danny said. He had a sinking feeling about it.

"We don't know that for sure," Chin put in. "There could be plenty of logical explanations."

"Trust me on this, something is wrong," Danny said again, looking around them.

"It's possible that Danny's connection with Steve is still strong enough for him to know if Steve is okay or not. The problem right now is the connection is so strained that Danny's sick."

"Hold up a minute," Kono said, waving a hand. "Since when did Steve and Danny have some kind of connection that meant they had to be practically tied together."

"They don't," Joe answered. "Not per se, but separating themselves over two continents wasn't exactly something I expected to happen. Especially right now while Danny gains more access to his power with Steve's help. I didn't expect for Steve to have left for so long and such distance, not this first time."

"Okay, so, magic means they have to stay together?" Kono asked, still confused.

"My working theory was that Steve and Danny are almost sharing the magic. We pretty much proved that in a practice session two days ago. Danny can't do a huge amount without Steve present, which means something in Steve is sustaining Danny's magic," Joe explained.

"So without Steve here to sustain Danny," Chin began.

"Danny got sick," Joe finished. "If a plant doesn't get energy from the sun, it wilts."

Danny didn't like the analogy, but it made it understandable. Then he realized they were talking about him like that. The fact that his life not only emotionally revolved around Steve these days, but also his physical wellbeing? If the witch who created this damnable spell was around, he'd have some very strong words for her. If possible, he'd kick her ass too, woman or not. This Shelburne project was going to be the death of him, he just knew it.

"So is Steve sick?" Chin asked.

"Possibly," Joe contemplated. "I suspect if he does feel anything it would be a bit like withdrawal from not being around Danny and the magic in him. But he's also a vampire, and vampires don't get sick, so it could go either way. As much as you're all looking to me for answers, it's new to the Guild too, this is a unique situation."

"Yeah, and I'm still waiting to find out why it's Steve and I that got all this crap flung at us in the first place," Danny pulled himself up on the seat when he found himself slipping again.

* * *

Steve was pulled and prodded into what looked like an old run down army base of some kind. The place was dark, damp and starting to fall apart. He wanted to try and escape but the knife still lodged in his heart had weakened him too much, and he couldn't risk doing anything while Lori still had Jenna captive.

"Was it all a ruse, to have me get Steve here?" She asked, getting brave. "Or do you really have Josh. Please, I need to know."

"Your fiancé died, Jenna. They found his body here months ago," Lori spoke back, unfeeling.

Even though Steve was ahead and being forced as he walked, he could hear the sob Jenna let escape. The two vamps that were holding Steve took him into a room and threw him onto the ground before starting a beating. He was kicked repeatedly, and he couldn't help the noises coming from him. The pain, the force, the shock of the hits. He had no idea how bad it was going to get before they let up.

Jenna hadn't been brought in with him. He could only hope she was being spared the same treatment as he.

* * *

The group gathered in Steve and Danny's living room were contemplating just how fast they could move on this, and what they could tell various government agencies, when Danny's phone rang.

He leaned forward for it and recognized the number. "Hey it's Jenna's. Chin can you do a trace through the laptop?"

Chin nodded, firing up the various programs connected with HQ. They'd turned the living room into a makeshift office since Danny was sick.

"Hey, Jenna? It's Danny, where are you?" He thumbed the phone onto speaker so everyone could hear.

"Danny, Danny, I'm sorry, I screwed up, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, it's okay, just tell me, where's Steve"

"Victor Hesse. Hesse has him Danny and I led Steve right to him. We didn't know, Danny, we were betrayed."

"Jenna, where's Steve. Where are you?"

"A town… south…"

"Jenna, you're breaking up, where are you?" They all waited. There was the vague sounds of scuffling and white noise intervening but nothing from Jenna. "Jenna," he tried again, but still no response.

They couldn't get a trace close enough to narrow down the grid before the phone cut off.

Adrenaline coursed through Danny enough to jolt him into action. He stood, albeit woozily. "Okay, so I was right, and something is very wrong and now we know what that thing is. I need to go speak to the Governor, see what can be done."

"I'll check with my own contacts," Joe said.

"Kono, you can drive me since I don't think I can make it alone," Danny began, then turned, "Chin, Jenna said something about being betrayed. We need to see if we can look into that, find out who could have had contact with Hesse lately. It's a long shot, but you might dig up something."

* * *

They decided this time to meet back at HQ properly, since the important equipment was there, and better than the remote access their laptops gave them. Plus, with the Governor's office in the Palace anyway, it meant Danny didn't have far to go after meeting with him.

Chin and Kono were waiting for Danny to come back down when Joe came in with Danny, a hand steadying Danny's elbow. "Well, we can forget it," Danny said, "because even if the Governor appealed to the State Department about launching a diplomatic mission, something like that could take weeks, maybe even months to be approved."

"We don't have that kind of time," Kono said.

"Something needs to be done now," Chin turned to Joe. "What did you get from the Guild?"

"Nothing yet in terms or rescuing Steve, but I did find out more about Operation Switchback, which was the Op Jenna's fiancé was on that went bad. Jenna is listed as the Intel Officer for the Op. The last person to go looking in that file was Lori Weston."

"Jenna said Lori had been helping her get more information. She told Steve that already," Chin said.

"Yes, she did. Then Danny told me Lori took leave to go see a brother on the mainland who'd been in an accident. I was positive, but I checked the records again to be sure. Lori doesn't have a brother, she was an only child."

"So where'd she go?" Kono asked, even though all of them looked worried that they knew where this was heading.

"We don't know," Danny said. "But it seems a bit coincidental that Jenna told us we'd been betrayed and Lori's disappeared on us."

Chin turned away from them and headed for the table computer in the middle of the room, the others following, though Danny was slow moving. Chin made quick work of whatever search he was doing, then looked up at them. "She's not booked on any flights out of Hawai'i that were headed for San Diego, like she said." He looked down and expanded the search. "I'm not seeing her listed at all, and I've checked back through the last 24 hours for all outgoing flights. There's nothing."

Joe nodded. "There is one good thing in this. I have access to the un-redacted file, Lori didn't. It listed a bunker that was suspected to be a cache for Victor Hesse."

"So what are we gonna do?" Kono asked.

"We're going to go get Steve and bring him home." Danny said, not caring about how bad he felt right now. He had enough in him to do what was needed, and that was about getting Steve back. Anything else would be a bonus.

* * *

They went home to pack essentials and then met at Hickam where Joe had said he'd get a Guild plane to take them where they needed to go. He'd said that using Steve's status for Danny would be enough to get the Guild to play along, albeit unofficially. They had to be careful, as Hesse could have spies anywhere. Certainly if Lori couldn't be trusted, who knew who could be, so they were treating it like an undercover op.

Kono had done the driving once again for Danny and helped him around the house. They were the last to arrive as they'd had to sort out everything for the two of them. After grabbing their stuff from the car, they wandered over to where Joe was leaning against a pile of crates of medical supplies. So that was going to be their cover story - inoculating kids in South Korea.

"So what happens when we land in Seoul?" Chin asked.

"We're on our own," Joe answered, then held out a bag for them. "I'm gonna need your badges and IDs. The minute this plane leaves the ground we're just civilians. That means no military supplies, fire support, or friendlies in the area. If the mission is compromised we go on escape and evade. The Guild only unofficially support this, so if we draw attention to ourselves, we could still face prosecution, so the key is to stay low. Danny needs to go or he'll get worse, but if any of the rest of you want to back out, now is the time. There's no shame in it. We come back with Steve or we don't come back."

He looked around them as they stood, giving them their chance to back out. Honestly, if Danny had more of a choice, he considered if he'd turn back, for Grace, but in his heart he knew he'd go. He wouldn't have been able to look Grace in the eye and say he abandoned Steve to whatever Hesse was doing to him. He swayed slightly, another woozy feeling coming over him. Kono and Chin each took an arm and tightened their grip. He looked up and smiled to see them both still there with him, every step of the way, just like always.

A black SUV pulled up, and for a moment, Danny worried it was someone coming to stop them. Then a team of men came out, in cammo gear.

"Right, who's ready to kick some ass and take some names?" The guy in charge approached Joe and smiled. "You got room for a few members of SEAL Team Nine on this little… uh, what are you calling it?"

"Humanitarian mission," Joe answered.

"Right, that's what I thought. Load it up, ladies," he said to the team behind him.

They hadn't expected military back up, and they weren't getting it, not officially. But SEAL Team Nine, Danny knew Steve had worked with that team before meeting Danny, clearly there was still a sense of family in them. They didn't care what Steve was. Danny had been told they actually respected him more for being able to become a SEAL considering vampires not often were able to make it into such tough echelons of the military. They had a cover story, flimsy that it might be, and if they were willing to help then Danny was going to take it. Joe must have reached out to them in some form, and Danny was very grateful for it, favor owed to Steve or not.

* * *

Steve had been hung by his arms in the center of the room. The chains were thick and heavy, tight around his wrists. He'd been lifted up so his feet couldn't touch the ground unless he stretched his toes down. The pull was sore on his shoulders in it's constancy, and his heart was slow to heal from where they'd finally taken the knife out. He didn't know how long he had to heal before they likely stuck it back in once more, which would give him the fresh pain all over again. They'd done that twice already.

He was battered and bruised and he had no idea how long he'd been there. Hesse hadn't come in to see him or ask him anything. He didn't know why he was being kept alive. His one good thought was that Danny was safe at home, but it was crowded out by so many negatives. If Hesse killed him, would Danny be next? Was he saving Steve from death right now until he could bring Danny here? What about Jenna? Where was she, was she hurt? Why had Lori betrayed them, and if she had, were there others in the Guild who had too? Was it all lies? He had too many questions and so few answers. It was driving him crazy but his mental anguish distracted from the physical pains throughout his body.

Slowly the bruises healed, but others landed on top of them. He'd broken one of his legs but he could feel it knitting back together. He'd used up so much energy that he'd be needing blood soon to sustain it. His healing ability would slow down and that would not be good. The curse of the fast healing, was that fresh pain, the shock of pain bursting through the body, was easily wrought upon him and he always thought that was worse than the dull aches of mending skin and bone.

The door opened and Jenna was brought in, thrown to the floor in a weeping mess, and her arm was shackled to the wall. In her presence he knew his senses would be dulled. He had to try not to let it show. If Hesse didn't know how magic truly affected vampires, it could still be an edge to have.

"What happened?"

"I'm sorry, Steve, I swear, I didn't know about Lori. And Hesse. I just wanted to get Josh back."

"Tell me the Guild aren't behind more of this. Tell me Lori is rogue."

"I don't know what she is, I really don't. I wasn't a part of this Steve."

"Okay, but how does someone like Lori fall in with Hesse, willingly? Does he have something on her? What do you know about her?"

"Just because she's Guild, it doesn't mean we know everything about each other. All I know is she was involved with the Shelburne project for a long time, that's why Joe brought her in. After I got reamed for doing my investigation without authorization, I was sent back to D.C. Lori contacted me, said she might be able to help me find Josh. She knew he was why I'd been tracking Hesse as long as I had."

"Okay, is Josh here?"

Jenna's lips quivered, and her eyes fell and Steve knew what that meant before Jenna said anything. In the end, she couldn't say the words, she just shook her head. He wished he could comfort her but there was nothing he could do. They had to figure a way out of this. He had to get home, he had to get to Danny. That constant pull to be by his side was tugging him back to Hawai'i. Thoughts of Danny being alive, and well, and happy were what was getting him through the beatings.

Sooner or later, Hesse would come to him and he hoped sooner. He worried about what Hesse was doing when he wasn't in sight.

* * *

Arriving in Seoul, Joe decided to keep Danny with him for safety. He wanted to monitor Danny's magic. He had to go meet someone he knew who'd be able to help, an old Guardian who had retired to Korea, or who hadn't really left the place in many years. The guy had a helicopter and various supplies they could need, and everything would be off the radar.

Danny had been feeling stronger. He didn't know if his body was getting used to how he felt, the rush of adrenaline for the rescue mission had been keeping him active, or if being closer to Steve's location was actually making a difference, but he didn't feel like he was behind himself every time he took a step. His brain didn't feel as fuzzy as it had, nor his limbs so heavy. He could only sigh in relief because he had a feeling that guns were going to be involved at some point soon, and he was determined to be holding one on the front line, not being held back and protected, the weak link in the operation.

The guy, Frank, had given Danny odd looks but he hadn't asked anything. He seemed like the kind of guy who'd been doing a lot of shady things in his life and had learned not to ask, so whatever he was thinking was going on, no one was going to enlighten him and he wasn't going to ask. The less he knew, the safer he probably was.

Preparations were slow, but Danny was more of an odd man out. He hadn't been given anything specific to do. Frank dealt with the helo, Chin and Kono set up the computers and satnav, and the SEAL boys were sorting weapons. Joe had been overseeing the whole thing and Danny was left to just sit on the helo and wallow in thoughts, letting his mind bog down on what was going on with Steve right then.

Joe kept shooting him looks and he was sure he caught all of them. As he was feeling a lot better, he was much more aware of the worried glances from the team around him, at least, from those who knew the whole deal. The SEALS were aware that Danny was ill, but had no idea what it was. No matter what Danny told Joe about how he was feeling better, he still ordered Danny to rest up for now.

It was frustrating. All he was doing was waiting. He put his head in his hand as Frank tried for a second time to get get the 'copter started by using the butt of his gun to hit the damned thing.

Danny hated helicopters.

* * *

Steve reeled back and cried out as the cattle prod stung his belly. The electricity coursing through him hurt like hell.

Finally Hesse had come into the room. He seemed like a man on a mission. There was very little of his usual attempts at banter with Steve that they'd always done to try and put each other off, but then, Hesse had him strung up like a hunk of meat, so he definitely had the upper hand now.

The pain receded, and the red welts on Steve's stomach would heal soon.

"Tell me about Shelburne." Hesse said, his tone cool and even.

"I don't know what Shelburne is," Steve responded. He was doing his best to fall into his military training, to put aside his vampire emotions, and focus on what being a SEAL had taught him. The use of the word 'Shelburne' by Hesse had surprised him. He didn't know if Hesse knew everything and just wanted to know what Steve did too, or if he genuinely didn't know about it but wanted to. He didn't know what Lori had or hadn't told him. Steve would not give up Danny to Hesse, he would not. Hesse could keep going like this as long as he wanted, but Danny was safe inside Steve and he would die protecting him. That thought outweighed any torture that could be brought upon him, he was certain of that. Hesse might as well kill him now.

The cattle prod stung him again and Steve rocked on the chains, the pull on his shoulders worse as he moved back, pulling his stomach muscles in trying to protect himself.

"Shelburne is all about magic, and suddenly you are surrounded by magic, Steve. I may not see it, but I tasted it, I know your partner is magic. I know the Guild have been sniffing around you for months now. You can't seriously believe I'd just think that was a coincidence?"

"You're wasting your time," Steve gritted out, his voice low and gravelly from his screams as well as his determination to keep quiet.

"What about Joe White?" Hesse asked amidst another round from the prod.

"Joe White doesn't know anything about Shelburne, okay?"

"Now I know you're lying." Hesse put the prod aside. "I have it on good authority that Joe White has been heading the Shelburne project since the beginning."

"You have Lori. Hasn't she told you what you need to know already?" Steve asked, hoping and praying that Lori hadn't said anything about Danny, but could only assume that she had given them both up if Hesse knew about Joe. Danny and she had become a lot closer in the last few months. He'd been jealous at times of them being around each other, but now that he knew he had to be there for Danny's magic to work properly, he'd felt better. Evidently, Lori hadn't. That might have been a part of her betrayal. Maybe she wanted Danny for herself, in which case, would she have said anything about him?

"She doesn't know where Shelburne is," Hesse said.

Steve looked at him, confused, genuinely. "Shelburne's alive?" He'd assumed the old witch had died. If not, why had everything still been so vague? Why hadn't they just asked her what Danny and Steve were, what they meant, what had happened?

Hesse just gave Steve a disbelieving stare and began pounding his fists against him, knocking the air from his lungs and forcing his body to swing on the chains painfully again.

When he let up for a moment, Steve asked, "Why is it so important to you to find her? Why do you care?"

"A friend of mine wants to find her."

Steve looked at Hesse's frustration, the torture not having worked so far. He laughed as he spat blood from his mouth. "Get in line, buddy."

Hesse was then distracted by a guard waving a phone at him that Steve recognized. He went over to investigate, asking where they'd found it. Jenna took the opportunity to get Steve's attention.

"I did what I could," she said as she threw over a pin that he grabbed with his foot. He had no idea where she'd got it, but it must have happened when she'd been taken away separately to begin with. Whatever she'd been up to, she may have helped, and it put his fears to rest over her allegiance.

Finishing his discussion, Hesse looked back over to them and went over to Jenna. He knew that she'd used the phone, which meant they were compromised. This was a good thing for them if they could get out of it.

Hesse stood between his two captives, but turned his head to Steve. "I don't know who she called but I wouldn't be surprised if it was to your cute little partner. Maybe he'll try and come here and rescue you. Tell me where Shelburne is."

"I. Don't. Know." Steve answered.

"Very well then," Hesse shrugged, turned back to Jenna and put two bullets in her. She fell back, a look of shock on her face and Steve knew she was dead. He reared back, his arms bearing the pain. He gaped at what Hesse had done. It hadn't shocked him that Hesse was capable of it, but Jenna shouldn't have died. He'd planned to get them both out of this. She shouldn't have died.

Hesse came closer and spoke in Steve's ear. "If you don't tell me, your partner will get the same treatment. Right in front of you."

At Hesse's threat Steve shook himself, and pushed his body forward. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! I'M GOING TO CUT YOUR HEAD OFF!" He was angry, he felt like he'd never been so angry in his life. Jenna was dead and yet, with Hesse's threat, his mind could only play back the same images but with Danny in her place, pulling on memories of Thomas from all those years ago as he had died.

His heart couldn't take it, couldn't take the pain of being without Danny and his anger took over. He bared his teeth, he let his vampire side take charge. As weak as it was with blood loss and pain and bruising, it had the strength to kill Hesse. He would find that strength because he would do it. Finally, he would kill this son of a bitch.

Hesse left him, uncaring that Steve continued a tirade of abuse at him as he walked out the door. Steve kept it up as he lifted himself, ignoring the pain as much as he could so that he could bring his feet up and pluck the metal pin into his hands. He used it as a pick to free himself of the lock on the chains. He cried out as the pain hit him as he lowered his arms from their painful position.

He had a bloodlust now. He could escape from here, but he was after Hesse. His scent was still in the air and Steve began tracking him. He took out two guys on his way, both of them human and easy to take down even in his weakened state. He moved through the compound and was able to grab a weapon, fully loaded. He pushed open a door, and found it led to the outside. He wavered, he could make a break for it, or he could continue to search out the scent that led to the right.

He turned, lifted his head into the scent and growled. He was going to kill Hesse.

He lifted his gun as two vampires came out from behind the bushes and pointed theirs at him. Then he heard the chuckle from his right. "You never learn, do you, Steve?"

Steve growled again. Still fully vamped out, he intended to take Hesse down. Now. "I'm going to kill you," he said again.

"All this because I threatened your pet? I'm beginning to think there's more to him than meets the eye. After all, what self respecting magic holder would enslave themselves to a vampire? And what vampire would stoop so low as take one of the crafty whores for himself?"

He laughed as Steve charged at him, but being outnumbered and weak, Steve was soon restrained on the ground and Hesse knelt down to see him.

"We're going now," he said, ordering his men but keeping his eyes on Steve's the entire time. "We're getting this one secure before going on the hunt for the blond. He'll have the information I need."

"No!" Steve struggled.

"I thought as much. The vampire doth protest too much."

* * *

Danny paused over Jenna's body.

She didn't deserve this, she didn't deserve to be dead. He moved further into the room, right towards where there were chains dangling from the ceiling, still swaying in the air. He reached up to grab hold of one and his hand came away with blood on it. He knew instantly that Steve had been hanging from these chains.

"Where is he, Joe?" he asked, registering the shock in his own voice, fighting off the shaky feeling in his limbs. Steve couldn't be dead, he was sure he'd know if Steve were dead.

"Come on, Danny. The body is still warm which means they couldn't have left that long ago. We need to move."

Joe had the only radio and it crackled to life with Kono's voice. She'd stayed back to keep eyes on the satnav, and she'd found a convoy not too far from them. That had to be Hesse and Steve. It spurred Danny back to life as he almost ran after Joe to get them going.

The convoy were already a mile ahead of them and who knows where their destination was. The time it took for them to catch up could easily be enough for them to get away. Joe barked orders into the radio for Frank and the SEAL they'd left on the helicopter for air support to do what they could to slow the convoy down. In the meantime, the rest of them found and took the last remaining vehicle that had been left behind and made their way down the same trail to block the other direction.

They all fanned out, taking places in the high ground of the trees and waited. Once the three trucks were all in sight they attacked, subduing everything that moved.

They got to a point where they didn't notice any enemy fire. The SEALs took off first, taking point as they approached the vampires in the group and pulled out knifes to behead them.

Danny looked around them and headed for one of the trucks, pulling up the tarp and knowing immediately what he'd find behind there.

Steve.

He was alive, he was awake, it was Steve.

"Hey, I got Steve!" He shouted and not waiting for a response, he jumped in and headed straight for him.

"Danny?" Steve questioned, disbelieving.

"Don't you ever do this to me again, you hear?" He struggled with the ropes around Steve's hands but got them off finally and pulled Steve into the fiercest hug they'd ever shared. He felt like the way Steve was wrapped around him he'd never let him go.

"Where's Hesse?' Steve asked into his ear.

"Don't know."

"What about Lori, I haven't seen her in a while but she was working with him."

"Haven't seen her either. Priority was getting you."

Steve pulled back enough to look Danny in the eyes. "We can't let them get away, I've got to stop them, you don't understand, Hesse was going to hunt you for information on Shelburne."

"We need to get you home, there's quite a bit you missed out on too, okay?"

"That can wait." As Chin pulled back the tarp with Joe, Steve scrambled to the edge and pushed himself off. Chin held out a blood bag for him and he immediately set about devouring it.

"Are you okay, son?" Joe asked, watching Steve drink. "Have you been sick or is this all from the beating you took?"

"Just the beating, but it'll heal fast. Why would I be sick?"

"We can discuss that once we're back somewhere safe," Danny said. "Can we go? Please? I'm not exactly enjoying this vacation."

Steve raised his nose to the air when there was a rustling in the trees up the trail. He threw the empty blood bag to the ground and vamped out. Chin did too, in reaction, thinking at first to defend himself but then realized Steve's attention was elsewhere. Danny patted Steve on the chest carefully. "Come on, babe, leave it alone, let's go."

"It's Hesse. He's out there."

Before Danny could stop him, Steve was off at a run to go after Victor. Danny shrugged his shoulders in defeat then took off after him as well. He dodged a new hail of bullets. It seemed the team hadn't cleared everyone, and now they were busy fighting off another wave of Hesse's men. Maybe even Lori was among them.

They came to the end of the tree line, which lead into a lush green clearing with yellow flowers scattered in the grass. Hesse was standing there, waiting for Steve. He thought he had the upper hand still, that Steve was no match for him in his weakened state, and seeing Danny he smiled.

"Thanks for coming, blondie. Saved me a trip back to Oahu to fetch you."

Steve stood in front of Danny. "You won't touch him, Victor."

"He has information I need. Torture may not work on you while you do your brooding vampire stoicism, but he's human. He's more likely to fold under the pressure. And I know he has a daughter he'll want to protect."

Steve launched himself forward, bounding towards Hesse and knocking him down. The two vampires tossed and turned on the ground, each getting in the punches as they fought. Hesse was able to get his feet between them and pushed Steve away and to the side where he landed badly on his shoulder, dislocating it from the sound. Danny rushed forward, trying to get closer. He felt useless standing at the side and he tried to distract Hesse himself with a few punches, receiving a few back into his abdomen for his troubles. Steve called his name as he folded over in pain, wondering how strong Hesse would have been if Danny's magic hadn't dampened his abilities.

As Steve brought himself to his feet he got between Hesse and Danny again and that was when Victor pulled out a knife and once more was able to plant it right into Steve's heart, making him stumble back against Danny and then go down in his arms. The pain seemed overwhelming, and worse than Danny had ever seen Steve in. He'd been so weakened, his body wasn't healing as fast as Danny had seen before.

He pulled the knife out and threw it to the side, trying to help, then felt a painful tug on his hair, lifting his hand to the source, he found himself standing back up as Hesse pulled him higher.

"I'll behead him and get it over with unless you tell me where Shelburne is," Hesse threatened into Danny's ear

"What? No!" Danny argued, not understanding. In response he found himself dizzy with pain as it exploded over his face. He felt the blood trickle from his nose and the corner of his mouth after a second hit landed on him, jerking his head in different directions. More blows rained down on his body. Steve weakly called his name and tried to stand but his legs weren't allowing him. Danny was dragged away a few feet by Hesse when Steve tried to grab his ankles.

Danny took a knee to the stomach then sank to the ground, spitting blood. "I don't know anything," he tried to reason with Hesse as he held himself on hands and knees.

"Victor, no!" The cry came in from nearby, and Danny looked up to see Lori there, holding a gun on all of them. "Danny wasn't part of the deal!"

"Deal's changed, sweetheart," Victor answered.

"I need Danny, I'm supposed to protect him, it's my job. My job. Not Steve's, you can kill Steve."

Danny saw his opportunity. If he could get Lori to stay calm and be back with them, the three of them had a better chance against Hesse.

"Lori?" Danny called, trying to get her attention.

She smiled over to him. "Danny. It's okay. Once Steve is gone, you'll see that I'm your protector, it's what I was always meant to be."

"I thought you were supposed to have the magic I got," Danny said calmly, trying to keep her talking.

"They were wrong about that, I get it, I really do. I was there, though, I told you. And I got tested all those times for something, right? I didn't fail, I was just supposed to be the other half. Joe said when he hired me for this, he thought I was the other half."

"Why didn't you say something sooner?"

She kept the gun trained on Hesse but it moved to Steve quickly then back again. "Joe wanted to wait, didn't want to overwhelm you with the knowledge. Then Steve got in the way. He never left you alone after he decided protection was his job."

"Okay, Lori? If you really want to protect me, we've got to stop Hesse, okay?"

"I don't think so, blondie," Hesse pulled a gun from the back of his pants and raised it, able to get a shot off before Lori could. She sunk to the ground, unmoving. Danny turned back to him in shock. "Never trust someone who betrayed others for you. Means they can easily do it again." Hesse looked at the weapon then pointed it at Danny. "Gotta love modern weapons. Makes killing magicians a whole lot easier."

Danny's lip curled at the derogatory words, but he held his hands placatingly. He wasn't going to move while the gun was pointed at him. "What do you want?"

"I want to know where Shelburne is and don't start telling me you don't know who Shelburne is. I've been through enough of that already."

"Why should I know?"

"Because if I'm putting the pieces together correctly, you seem to be entangled in this just as much as Weston was, so cough up the information or I kill one of you, or both of you, I don't really care, but at least one of you will be dead."

With a strangled cry of 'no', Steve tried to push himself to his feet again but collapsed back down when the gun went off and blood trickled from a hole in his side. Danny didn't know what to do. He tried to think. Hesse's abilities were dampened in his presence but he had a gun and that pretty much trumped the issue. Steve may not be affected by Danny, but he was weakened from the torture so he wasn't much use and Danny's magic wouldn't work on Hesse.

But it might distract him.

Danny had been told that it would fizzle, but he didn't know when it would. He might be able to get something off that would surprise Victor enough to let him make his own lunge for the gun. He'd been feeling stronger in Steve's presence again, their connection rekindling in their proximity and he felt the magic quite strong within him.

He focused on Steve, on knowing that this could work and save him. In a flash he conjured up a fireball and threw it at Hesse.

It connected with his gun hand, the heat from it, and the surprise, making him drop the weapon.

All three of them took in what had just happened, how it wasn't supposed to be possible, but it had. Danny recovered the fastest and brought forth two more, throwing them at Hesse with great accuracy, the vampire's clothing bursting into flames while he ferociously tried to pat himself down to put them out.

Steve grabbed the forgotten knife from the grass and pushed himself up. As Danny let go of two more fireballs, Hesse fell to his knees as it burned his skin. Steve was careful as he moved behind Hesse. He sunk the knife into his back, penetrating to his heart and pulling it out again moving back to let Hesse's head hit the ground with a thump.

Danny came forward. He waved his hand over Hesse's body and the flames went out, leaving charred and blackened flesh on display. He winced as he looked at Hesse's mottled body. Steve grabbed into Victor's hair, pulling back to expose his neck.

"This is for my family," Steve said plunging the knife into Victor's neck, pulling it to the sides, severing his head. Danny had to look away, the knife making slopping work of the beheading and he really didn't want to have nightmares about what he witnessed.

When he looked back, Victor's head wasn't attached anymore and Steve was covered in more blood than before. Steve threw the knife aside and looked up at Danny.

"He's dead?" Danny asked, dumbfounded, not entirely believing it but knowing he had to be.

"Finally," Steve said, a small smile on his lips. "My family is avenged. And Thomas. All thanks to you."

"Me? You cut his head off."

"I wouldn't have got so close without your magic."

"Speaking of," Danny said, "How come that worked?" He moved over to Steve when he realized the vampire was having trouble getting to his feet. He hooked one of Steve's arms over his shoulder, not the dislocated one, and pulled him away from the body.

"Another mystery to add to the pile. Wait," Steve stopped, forcing Danny to as well and looked around. "Where's Lori?"

Danny followed Steve's lead and looked, but Lori's body wasn't where she had fallen. She must have still been alive and escaped into the trees. "Damn," Danny said.

"What did she mean about her job and talking to you about it?"

"That's a long story and it can wait for now. Seriously, we just killed Hesse, we're both still standing. Mostly. Let's get back to the others."

Before they could move too much further, the SEAL team, Chin and Joe came bursting through the trees at them. Some of them were the worse for wear but none looked as bad as Steve. Chin helped Danny move him. Joe tried to help to give Danny a chance to move aside, but neither Steve nor Danny wanted to be separated right now.

They made it back to the helicopter together and piled in. Steve and Danny were kept to the center, bracketed by the others. They were kept safe as they took to the skies again, clutching at one another, Steve's hand like a vice in Danny's.

* * *

"So you lied to me?" Steve shouted at Danny.

"I didn't lie, I just forgot about it. I didn't think it was important."

Danny was beginning to hate Steve's ability to heal fast. Currently, Steve was pacing in the small hotel room with nothing but a minor limp from where Hesse had broken his leg the day before, and a wince every so often for his shoulder or heart. Even the scratches and bruises had vanished in the last few hours. Danny, however, was sitting on the end of the bed, a hand periodically checking his swollen jaw or rubbing gingerly against his battered and bruised torso. Even his hair still hurt from where Hesse had yanked it up, and he didn't think hair was supposed to hurt.

He was tired too, barely up for this conversation as it was, but Steve had asked him again about what Lori said and he'd explained about how she'd been the original baby chosen.

"How is Lori's involvement in that not important?"

"I just… she trusted me enough to tell me about it. I didn't feel right spreading the information around."

"So you didn't forget, you decided not to tell me."

"No," Dammit, he was digging himself into a hole. "I was trying to decide if I should tell you, then a case got in the way and then I didn't even think about it."

Steve sighed, rubbed both hands into his hair then dropped them to clench into fists at his side. "Danny, how can I do my job properly if I don't have all the information? The whole point of my job as leader of Five-0, as well as being here to help you, is that I can make decisions based on the facts."

"And what would you have done if I'd said about Lori?"

"I'd have watched her a lot more carefully! Going through what she'd been through in life was a recipe for an unstable mind and she proved that when she betrayed us."

"She didn't want to be me. I got that from her quickly."

"No, she wanted to be me in the end, didn't she. And she's still out there somewhere, probably planning a new way to get rid of me so she can get herself back involved with this."

"The Guild would never let her back in," Danny argued.

"She won't consider that. She's unhinged, not right in the head."

"And you'd know all about being unhinged," Danny murmured.

Steve picked it up with his focused hearing. He stopped in front of Danny and frowned down at him. "Now is not the time to joke about that."

"I'm sorry," he said, meaning for both the joke and the whole situation. "I really am. I never thought this would happen and I didn't mean to keep secrets from you. I know how much trust you place in me, and I appreciate it. I don't want to damage that."

Steve sighed and sat beside him. "It wasn't malicious, I know that. But you've got to promise me that you'll come to me with anything that can affect us. If it's to do with magic or the people who use it, other vampires, anything that could jeopardize us, I need to know too."

"I know, babe. I promise, from now on, everything out on the table. So long as it goes both ways." He put his hand into Steve's where it rested on his thigh and squeezed. "Partners."

"Partners," Steve smiled. He looked worriedly at Danny as he saw how the other man bit his bottom lip. "Is there something else? Already?"

"No! I mean, yes. Just, it only happened in the last few days so it's not like I kept it from you, or anything."

"What is it?"

"I told you things had happened back home that you didn't know about." At Steve's nod, Danny continued. "Well, turns out that Joe literally meant that we're supposed to stay together. Like there's a cord between us with the magic and when you left Oahu to come to Korea you pulled apart the damn thing too much."

"I didn't feel anything. Wait, did something happen to you?" Steve pulled his leg onto the bed between them so he could face Danny full on, trying to gauge what he'd missed.

"I got kinda sick. You didn't. Joe thinks it's 'cause you're a vampire and vampires don't get sick so somehow you escaped that little side effect and I got the full whammy."

Steve reached out and ran a hand over Danny's forehead and down his cheek, skirting carefully over his jaw. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. You should have called."

"By the time we did, you were already caught."

"How sick were you?"

"It wasn't too bad, not really," Danny hedged, trying not to worry Steve. "Headache, a little dizzy, kinda slow moving." He didn't say that he'd felt like he was at death's door with really bad flu and had just wanted to curl up in the fetal position. But since he'd managed to summon the strength to get to Korea to help Steve, he figured maybe it hadn't been so bad. "I got here fine anyway, and once I was here, it got better."

Steve smiled. "So you have to stay close to me or you get sick?"

"Oh no," Danny clocked the smile for what it was. "Oh no, don't you be getting more ideas about sticking to me like glue, that is not fair."

"It's not my idea, you just told me we need to. I don't go looking for excuses," Steve smiled through his words, enjoying every moment of it.

"Uh huh," Danny narrowed his eyes at Steve. "Look, I'm exhausted, I need sleep. Did you get enough blood?"

"Yeah, Chin brought enough to see me until we get home."

"You don't need…?" Danny gestured at his own neck.

"No, no, Danny, you're injured and you were sick before, I'm not going to risk taking from you. Not until we're home and safe."

"Okay," Danny leaned forward into Steve's space and laid a light kiss on his lips. "Come on, you can keep me company in the bed." He pushed himself up the bed so he could lie with his head on the pillow. Toeing off his shoes, he couldn't be bothered taking off anything else.

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Steve smiled as he shucked his borrowed shoes and lay on his side, a hand caressing carefully down Danny's chest. He leaned down and captured Danny's mouth again in lazy, relaxed kisses. His hand trailed up and down Danny's chest and into his neck with light touches. Danny's hand came up and curled in the back of Steve's head. He bent one of his legs up as Steve's made his way between them, tangling their bodies together.

"Babe," Danny started between kisses. "Babe, as much as I'd love to, really love to, I'm not up to much right now."

"I know." Steve kisses the end of Danny's nose, then his cheek, down behind his ear. "Just relax, I got you." He pulled himself tight into Danny's side. "Get some sleep, I'm not going anywhere," he whispered as Danny curled against him in response.

Danny didn't know how long it took him to fall asleep. He was comfortable despite the cheap hotel mattress and funky smells coming from both of them, too tired to shower yet. They'd be going back to Oahu in the morning, and it couldn't come fast enough. He really hadn't been fond of Korea.

As he drifted, he heard faintly as Steve spoke quiet, calming words in his ear. He had no idea what the endearments were, but they were comforting, with strength and love behind them.

They'd made it this far together, they could take on anything, of that they were both sure.


End file.
